Sirens were sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas on Friday 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.

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

The military said some 9,500 missiles, rockets and drones were fired at Israel from Gaza and other fronts since Oct. 7, and 2,000 of them had been shot down by air defences designed to ignore projectiles on a course to land harmlessly in open areas.

Some 12% 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 a significant drop-off in the number of launches,” it said.