Israeli helicopters attack targets in Gaza
Strike follows deadly blast by militants at military checkpoint
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 Hamas said the tunnel took four months to dig.
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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Hours after a tunnel blast by militants in Gaza killed five Israeli soldiers, Israeli helicopters early Monday fired six missiles at targets in Gaza City.
The missiles struck two metal workshops suspected of making weapons for use against Israelis.
The home of a Hamas activist was also hit, Palestinian security sources told CNN. They said the house, in the southern part of the city was empty, and no casualties were reported.
The Israeli forces often target workshops where they say Palestinian militants make weapons like Qassam rockets, which are fired at Israelis living beyond Gaza's boundaries.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that the new Palestinian leadership was not doing enough about terror.
"It's about the window of opportunity that is open now. That, of course, now all depends if the Palestinians will act against terror. And now we don't see any change whatsoever. Even yesterday we had a very, a very hard terror act. As a matter of fact it happens almost every day now," Sharon said.
"And I think a development depends on one thing, that the Palestinians understand that they have to act against terror. That is, that is the current situation."
On Sunday, Palestinian militants set off explosives in a tunnel under an Israel Defense Forces post next to a joint Israeli-Palestinian military checkpoint near Rafah, then opened fire, an Israeli official said.
Five other IDF soldiers were wounded, two seriously, in the Rafah terminal in southern Gaza.
Hamas was one of the groups claiming responsibility for the attack.
In a pamphlet distributed after the first explosion, Hamas said it had used 1.5 tons of explosives and had recorded video of the incident. The half-mile tunnel took four months to dig.
In the video, released within hours of the attack, a Hamas spokesman promised there would be no letup in the anti-Israeli violence,
"We will continue in the resistance until we expel the occupation from our land and teach the Zionist enemy that Hamas and the Palestinian people will not stand by with these crimes that are being committed daily," spokesman Mushi al-Masri said.
Sunday's blast took place beneath an international terminal that was recently opened to serve Palestinians who move between Egypt and Gaza.
Raanan Gissin, a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, called it a sign that terrorists are trying to prevent moves toward normalization in the area -- and he called on Palestinian leadership to take action against such groups.
The attack "indicates that unless there is decisive and sustained effort taken to dismantle the terrorist organization, it will be impossible to move towards normalizations and towards political negotiations. That's the message of today's attack," Gissin said. "And I think the responsibility on that lies with the Palestinian Authority."
He also called on both Egypt and Palestinian security forces to take actions to prevent the digging of tunnels.
He said Israel will take "the necessary measures" to avoid such attacks unilaterally -- and will "use harsher measures" -- but "we much prefer" to work with Egypt and the Palestinians to do so.
Asked whether the attack and ongoing violence in the area may delay plans for an Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, Gissin responded, "Nothing in the world is going to postpone the timetables and the decision that has been taken by the government for unilateral withdrawal."
He added, "But there is another alternative ... for the Palestinians, with the help of the Egyptians, to help us coordinate the withdrawal" and assume security responsibility over the area.
Sharon wants Israel to withdraw all its troops and about 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza and four small areas in the northern West Bank.
Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist organization whose military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military.
CNN producer Talal Aburahma contributed to this report.
