JERUSALEM
A Barrage of rockets was fired on Israel from the Gaza Strip late on Tuesday, Israeli police said.
It added on its website that the rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on different parts of Israel.
A short time earlier, Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, said in a televised address that it would not accept a ceasefire in Gaza before Israel lifts the blockade it has been imposing on the tiny enclave since 2006.
Qassam added that Israelis would never enjoy security so long as Palestinians do not enjoy this security.
Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, said sirens went off in the central region of Israel.
"Police emphasis to public to go into safe zones as sirens go off," he added on his Twitter account.
He said earlier that warning sirens were sounded in southern Israel's city of Ashkelon.
Since July 7, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip with fierce aerial bombardments with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire from the strip, leaving 1216 people dead and more than 7000 others injured.
The vast majority of the dead and injured victims are civilians: children, women and elderly people.
Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rocket at Israeli cities in response to relentless Israeli bombardments.
According to official Israeli figures, 53 Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed since the hostilities began.
Israel's military operation, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.
In 2008/9, over 1500 Palestinians were killed in Israel's three-week-long operation "Cast Lead."
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
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