A Gaza-based militant group loyal to Islamic Hamas movement claimed responsibility on Friday of firing a Grad rocket from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel, Xinhua reported.
The armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said in a communique sent to reporters that its militants fired the Grad rocket at Israel "in response to the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people in Gaza."
An Israeli army spokesman told Israel Radio that a Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed at an empty area near the town of Afokin, in the Negev, in southern Israel, causing harms to a parking car but no injuries were reported.
The spokesman noted that it is the first time that a long-range Grad rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel since the end of the three-week Israeli offensive Cast Lead on Jan. 18, 2009.
Hamas movement is still restoring an undeclared truce with Israel since the end of the war. However, minor militant groups had launched dozens of rockets at southern Israel. In response, Israel carried out limited retaliatory attacks on militants' targets and smuggling tunnels in the enclave.
The Israeli army spokesman also said that within the last couple of days, Gaza militants fired five mortar shells at southern Israel, causing no harms or injuries.
The escalation of rockets attacks on Israel came after Israeli warplanes struck a car on Wednesday, killing two brothers, members of the al-Qaida affiliated radical group "Jaish el-Islam", or the Army of Islam.
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