Four Hamas terrorists were killed late Tuesday night during an Israeli air strike on terrorist positions in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli action came in response to 10 mortar shell and four Kassam rocket attacks launched by Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists earlier in the evening. In one of the mortar attacks, a house in the southern Israel village of Netiv Ha'asara suffered a direct hit and a woman and her granddaughter who were inside narrowly escaped injury, reported Ynet.

Israel's defense establishment said it remains determined to implement a cabinet decision to impose a limited embargo on fuel and electricity to Gaza in response to the ongoing Palestinian artillery attacks. That despite the fact that Israeli Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz bowed to international pressure on Monday and temporarily prohibited the government and army from enacting the measure.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak later warned that in the continued absence of an alternative solution to the Gaza rocket fire, Israeli will eventually be forced to launch a full-scale military invasion of the volatile coastal strip. Hamas is preparing for such an eventuality, and, according to Israeli military commanders, has constructed a series of underground bunkers and firing positions along the Gaza border. The terror group is believed to have 10,000-20,000 heavily-armed Iranian-trained soldiers in Gaza.

In other anti-terror action, Israeli forces apprehended 16 wanted Palestinian terror suspects during overnight operations in Judea and Samaria (the so-called "West Bank").