A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck a residential neighbourhood in Ashkelon Friday, causing no injuries but breaking months of quiet in the southern Israeli coastal city, DPA reported.
Mayor Benny Wakni told reporters at the scene minutes after, it was the first rocket to struck a densely populated area in his city since Cast Lead, the devastating three-week offensive Israel launched in the winter of 2008-2009 in a bid to curb such rocket attacks.
Wakni said the rocket landed in a garden between buildings.
Witnesses said car windshields and windows in the area broke and a warning siren wailed throughout the city.
The rocket appeared to be a Russian-style Grad rocket, smuggled into Gaza, but evidence was still being gathered. Israel accuses Iran of supplying Grad rockets to Gaza.
Grad rockets have a longer range than the Gaza-produced, relatively primitive Qassam rockets, developed by the armed wing of Hamas, the radical Islamist movement ruling Gaza.
Sporadic rocket and mortar fire has continued since the 2008-2009 Gaza war, but most have hit Israeli fields close to the Gaza border. Israel was likely to retaliate.