A Grad-type rocket fired from Gaza slammed into southern Ashkelon on Sunday night. Two residents suffered shock as a result of the blast and were taken to a clinic for medical treatment.

A Rocket alert system rang out across Ashkelon at around 7:20 p.m., local officials said.

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A police spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post that bomb squad officers were searching for the location of impact. "We believe this was a Grad rocket," the spokeswoman said. No physical injuries or damages were reported.

The IDF said a mortar shell was fired earlier on Sunday at the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, adding that an additional two rockets were fired at the South earlier during the day.

On Saturday, a major escalation in Palestinian shelling attacks on southern Israel occurred when 50 mortars were fired at farming communities in the western Negev. A man and his wife were injured by shrapnel as they sought shelter in a safe zone.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he viewed seriously the “criminal attacks by Hamas on Israeli citizens. Israel will take all necessary measures to defend its citizens,” he added.

If the current round of violence continues to escalate, the IDF will consider resuming targeted killings against Hamas commanders and senior operatives in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas’s so-called “return to direct terror activity” began Friday with the firing of a guided anti-tank missile at an IDF jeep on patrol along the Gaza border.

This is the second time in a month that a guided anti-tank missile has been fired from the Gaza Strip. The IDF believes that Hamas and possibly other organizations have a significant arsenal including Kornet, Fagot and Sagger-guided anti-tank missiles.

Hamas fired 54 mortar shells into communities in the western Negev within a period of about 15 minutes early in the morning, causing extensive damage to several homes on a kibbutz, a police spokesman said.

One shell landed on the rooftop of a kindergarten, but there was no one inside because it was Shabbat.

Hamas’s military wing, the Kassam Martyrs Brigades, claimed responsibility for the mortar fire. In all of 2010, 215 mortars were fired into Israel.