Saraya al-Quds, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said in two separate pamphlets that its militants fired one medium-range homemade rocket at the Israeli costal city of Ashkelon and at the town of Sderout in southern Israel.

"We claim responsibility for the heroic rockets attacks carried out on Monday afternoon. The attacks are part of our ongoing retaliation to the Zionist crimes against our people in the West Bank and Gaza," said the group.

It added that "the only choice remains for the Palestinians is to continue armed resistance until the liberation of all the land of Palestine."

Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing al-Qassam brigades also claimed responsibility for launching six mortar shells at the crossing of Kerem Shalom in southern Gaza Strip on the borders between Israel and Egypt.

Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesman told Israel radio that several homemade projectiles were fired by militants from Gaza at southern Israel, adding that no injuries or damages reported.

Earlier in the day, Hamas said that it was opposed to an Israeli offer to Egypt to operate Kerem Shalom crossing instead of Rafah on the borders between Gaza Strip and Egypt to let 6,000 stranded Palestinians to cross into Gaza.