A Grad rocket fired from Gaza slammed into the centre of the southern Israeli city of Beersheva early today, lightly injuring one person, an Israeli Army spokeswoman told AFP.
"A Grad rocket hit the centre of the city of Beersheva. One man was moderately injured by shrapnel and taken to hospital," the spokeswoman said.
She said the rocket had hit a road and the shrapnel had flown into a nearby apartment, injuring the man.
Another Grad rocket fired by militants in the Gaza Strip hit the outskirts of Beersheva on February 23, but this was the first time since operation cast lead that such a projectile landed in the middle of the city, home to 186,000 people.
Beersheba is about 40 kilometres from Gaza, much further than the Israeli cities regularly targeted by Palestinian militants.
Late on Tuesday, a grad rocket was fired towards the southern port city of Ashkelon but landed south of it without causing injuries or damage, she said.
Militants in Gaza on Tuesday fired nine rockets and missiles into Israel — seven mortars, one Qassam and one grad rocket, the Army said.
Operation Cast Lead is the name for Israel's 22-day war on Gaza which started at the end of December 2008 in a bid to halt rocket fire on Israel. During the operation 1,400 Palestinians were killed, more than half of them civilians, and 13 Israelis, 10 of them soldiers.
The surge in bloodshed follows days of rising cross-border violence, which has ramped up tensions between Israel and Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers and once again raised fears of a large-scale Israeli military invasion to stamp out rocket fire.