Helicopters from Israel hit security compound

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel struck Palestinian security buildings for the second straight day Saturday, firing missiles from helicopters in a pre-dawn raid in retaliation for mortar attacks on Jewish settlements.

The strike badly damaged three buildings inside the Rafah refugee camp, witnesses said, but no injuries were reported.

Palestinian security buildings throughout the Gaza Strip had been evacuated Friday after an Israeli F-16 jet struck a police compound early in the day, injuring 20 people.

The attacks marked a resumption of Israeli military action against Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority after a pause Israel said was meant to give the Palestinian leader a chance to toughen his crackdown on terrorism.

The 1:30 a.m. strike at the security complex inside a refugee camp hit three buildings belonging to military intelligence and Force 17, Arafat's personal guard, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.

The missiles blew large holes in the roofs of the buildings and toppled some walls, witnesses said. Security officials who worked in the buildings sifted through rubble after the attacks, searching for furniture and belongings.

The five mortar shells that were fired at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip late Friday injured no one, the army said. It said Palestinian security officials should have prevented the shellings.

"These groups are directly and indirectly responsible for the mortar shellings," the army said in a statement.

Three more mortar shells were fired toward Jewish settlements in two separate incidents in the central Gaza Strip later Saturday, the army said.