The Israel Air Force overnight hit several targets in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for five Kassam rockets Palestinian militants fired into Israel on Wednesday.

Israel's aircraft made "direct hits" on what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman's Office said were "centers of terrorist activity in northern and central Gaza Strip."

"The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli citizens or IDF soldiers, and will continue to act against any terrorist activity against the State of Israel," the IDF said in a statement sent to Xinhua.

"Hamas is a terrorist organization, and bears all responsibility," the release read.

Palestinian sources said Israelis attacked an open area between Gaza City and the Sajieyeh refugee camp, causing no casualties.

In the Palestinian attacks, projectiles exploded in Israel's three separate farming areas, causing no injury or damage to residents.

"We can't accept this drizzle of rockets," Yair Farjun, who heads the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, told The Jerusalem Post.

Israel "can't tolerate such a continuing situation," he said, adding that" It must be made clear to them that there is a price to this."

Neighboring Eshkol Regional Council chief Haim Yelin complained to Army Radio on Thursday that "the government is not determined to put a stop to this rocket fire. Until substantial measures are taken, it won't end."

Leaders of Israel's two local councils which border the coastal enclave on Tuesday asked the UN to "forcefully condemn" the repeated attacks on their areas.

"...a total of 382 rockets and mortar bombs were fired at the residents of Eshkol and Shaar-Hanegev," during 2011, Yelin and Alon Shuster said in a letter delivered to UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon.

On Saturday, an Israeli woman was wounded by a rocket fired toward coastal Ashkelon. Palestinians said one man was killed by an Israel Air Force retaliatory strike on what it said were weapon production facilities and smuggling tunnels.

Ban visited Israeli communities affected by the Kassam and mortar strikes, as well as areas in Gaza hit by Israeli retaliation strikes on Feb. 3. His visit was preceded by a salvo of nine rockets fired a day earlier.

On a tour of a school in the Kassam-scarred town of Sderot, Ban noted "let us be clear that this is not how anyone -- anywhere -- should have to live."

"Nothing justifies the indiscriminate firing of rockets and mortars into Israel. It is completely unacceptable to target and terrorize the citizens on a near daily basis. It must stop," he added.

The town of some 20,000 residents has been incessantly targeted by rockets and mortars fired from nearby Beit Hanun, and some two dozen people have been killed in missile strikes throughout the region.

On Jan. 2, Yelin and Alon Shuster sent to the UN a similar letter, detailing a rocket attack which employed a bomb that contained phosphorus -- illegal according to the Geneva War Conventions.

There was no reported response from the UN to that letter.

Senior Israeli political and military leaders have repeatedly warned in recent months that such shelling may force them into a large-scale attack on militants in Gaza, similar to 2008-2009's Operation Cast Lead.