Sirens have been heard in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas as Hamas said it fired rockets deep into Israel in what the Palestinian group described as a response to mounting civilian deaths in the Gaza war, Reuters reports.

Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds from the salvo, which followed a relative lull in rocket fire as Israeli forces pressed a ground offensive in Gaza in the fifth week of the war.

Some 12 per cent of Gaza rockets, which are mostly locally made, had fallen short within Palestinian territory, the military said.

“With the entry of (Israeli) forces on the ground, there has been a significant drop-off in the number of launches,” it said.