OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel carried out an air raid on the Gaza Strip early Monday targeting "a group of terrorists preparing to fire rockets against south Israel", the army said in a statement.

The army said the target was hit, but Palestinian witnesses said the strike on the Deir al-Balah region in the central Gaza Strip caused no casualties or damage.

Violence broke out at the end of June with Palestinians firing rockets at Israel and Israelis replying with air raids on the territory ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.

The hostilities interrupted a fragile truce observed for more than a year by Hamas.

The other armed factions in the Gaza Strip, including Islamic Jihad, had continued regularly to fire rockets or mortar shells at Israeli territory.