Israeli warplanes carried out three air strikes in the northern Gaza Strip late Friday night after two rockets were fired from the Strip at southern Israel.

One rocket fired at the city of Ashkelon was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery, hours after another rocket exploded in an open area in the city of Sderot.

In Sderot, a nearby bus was damaged by shrapnel, but none were wounded. Rocket alerts were sounded in both cases. The rocket appeared to have been fired from Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza. This is the first rocket to hit Sderot since the 2014 summer Gaza war.

The Israel Defense Forces said it will not tolerate rocket fire at Israeli territory. "The terrorist group Hamas is the sovereign, and it carries the responsibility," the IDF said in a statement. Palestinians report that none were wounded during the overnight airstrikes.

A Salafist group calling itself the Omar Brigades, which identifies with ISIS, took responsibility for the rocket fire toward Ashkelon. The attack is believed to have been meant as an act of defiance against Hamas, which persecutes the group, and in protest of recent violence on Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The rocket fire follows a day of clashes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that left 21 Palestinians and 3 Israeli policemen wounded.

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi said that "we expect the prime minister and defense minister to act firmly and decisively to achieve quiet in the area and the restoration of a normal life for residents,"

Earlier Friday, Egyptian security officials and eyewitnesses told DPA that the Egyptian army has begun to pump water from the Mediterranean Sea into underground smuggling tunnels connected Gaza with the Sinai Peninsula.

On Thursday, an Iron Dome battery was deployed in Ashdod following a defense assessment carried out by the IDF's Southern command.

Opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) said in response to the rocket fire that "Israeli citizens' lack of security is an unacceptable and grave reality. We all deserve security in Jerusalem, Sderot and everywhere in the country." He said Israel should now “carry out a strike on terror and take regional and international measures that will change the face of the region."

The last rocket to be fired from Gaza exploded on the Palestinian side of the border on September 1. A Palestinian Salafist organization claimed responsibility for that attack, according to the Walla! website, as a response to clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin.

The Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas weapons factory in central Gaza last month after a rocket launched from the Strip exploded in Israeli territory, causing no damage.