A Palestinian was killed and two others injured Monday evening in an Israeli strike on the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoon, a medical official said.

Gaza emergency spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra told reporters that Musa'ab Za'aneen, 21, a local resident of Beit Hanoon, was killed and two others wounded, including a little girl.

Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion and then found one killed and two wounded, and that all of them were taken to a hospital in northern Gaza.

It isn't immediately know if Za'aneen was a militant, but the witnesses said the airstrike came shortly after militants launched a homemade rocket from the area into southern Israel.

Meanwhile, an Israeli military source confirmed to Xinhua that an airstrike was conducted to target a "terror cell."

In the past few weeks, attacks were traded between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave, after a year of relative calm between the two sides following an eight-day large-scale armed conflict.