People take cover as sirens sound in Jerusale
People take cover as sirens sound in JerusaleIsrael news photo

A rocket exploded in an open area near an Arab village in Gush Etzion around 2:15 p.m. as sirens wailed in Jerusalem during another barrage of rockets and missiles unleashed by Hamas.

The missile exploded in an open area, and no one was injured. Minutes before the sirens rang out, an AFP correspondent in Gaza City reported hearing the loud report of an outgoing rocket.

The attack was claimed by Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which said it had fired "an M75 rocket at the occupied city of Jerusalem."

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who spent the past two days in Egypt, had been scheduled to hold talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman shortly after noon.

At least one missile was aimed at Jerusalem last week and reportedly exploded in an open area next to an Arab village in Gush Etzion, located south of the capital.

Shortly earlier on Tuesday, three rockets hit a kibbutz, critically wounding at least one person. The early warning siren system did not operate, and there are fears that several young people, possibly children, are trapped in debris.

A Grad missile demolished a Be’er Sheva home. A woman in the house took cover in the reinforced shelter in the house and escaped injury.