Five wounded in Tel Aviv area rocket strikes: rescuers

Five people were injured Monday in the suburbs of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv, including one woman in serious condition, after rocket fire hit central Israel, first responders said.

Air raid sirens had sounded earlier in Tel Aviv and several cities of central Israel, Israel's civil defence command said.

The military said it had "intercepted one projectile" that crossed from Lebanon while Israeli police said they received reports of rocket debris falling in the Tel Aviv area.

In a separate statement it said that a review of Israel's air defence systems showed that Israel's interceptor missile "hit a surface-to-surface missile launched from Lebanon at a high altitude, breaking it into several parts".

"As a result of the interception, some parts of the missile hit the ground, causing damage and casualties," it added.

The Magen David Adom service said its first responders evacuated five injured people to hospitals following rocket strikes in the Ramat Gan region, near Tel Aviv.

AFPTV footage shot in Ramat Gan around 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) showed a fire that started on a pavement at the base of a transmission tower, as well as surrounding buildings with blown-out windows.

Earlier, a spokesman for Israeli firefighters said a rocket strike killed a woman in the northern Israeli town of Shfaram, east of the Haifa area.

The military said Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, fired around 100 projectiles from Lebanon towards Israel on Monday, while Israel's air force carried out more deadly strikes on Beirut.

Since September 23 Israel has escalated its bombing of targets in Lebanon and has since sent in ground troops.

The intensified conflict follows almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Hezbollah in support of Hamas in Gaza.