Israel bombed 29 targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Israeli military said, after Palestinian militants in the coastal territory fired 60 rockets into Israel in the heaviest such barrage since 2012, according to the Associated Press.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military "to take any action necessary to restore calm" to Israel's south, and that "if there is no quiet in the south then it will be noisy in Gaza, and that's an understatement," the AP reported.

The rocket fire, which police said resulted in no casualties, was claimed by the Islamic Jihad group and came a day after Israel killed three of its members in a Gaza air strike, according to the AP. A military spokesman said 60 rockets hit Israel "in a simultaneous coordinated attack," and five landed in built-up areas.

Israel bombed 29 militant targets in response, the AP reported. Israeli forces fired tank shells in response at what the spokesman described as "two terrorist locations" in Gaza.

Israeli warplanes bombed five militant training camps, Palestinian officials and witnesses said, according to the AP. There were no immediate reports from the Palestinian enclave of any casualties.

The Israeli military said it targeted and killed the three Islamic Jihad militants on Tuesday after they fired mortar bombs at Israeli soldiers, the AP reported. Islamic Jihad said at the time that its men had been killed confronting Israeli troops who had entered the Gaza Strip.

Commenting on Wednesday's barrage, Islamic Jihad said it had fired 90 rockets towards Israel and named the operation "Breaking the Silence," according to the AP.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department condemned the rocket attacks and said Israel had a right to defend itself, according to the AP.

"There is no justification for such attacks," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement, the AP reported. "We call for these terrorist attacks to cease immediately."

Palestinian officials said that after the rocket strikes, Israel had informed them that it was closing the Kerem Shalom crossing, through which goods pass into the Gaza Strip, until further notice, the AP reported.

Israel pulled its soldiers and settlers out of the territory, run by Hamas Islamists, in 2005, but it maintained a naval and air blockade and severely restricted the overland movement of people and goods across the volatile border, according to the AP.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement via his spokesman urging an end to what he called "Israeli military escalation in the Gaza Strip," the AP reported.