Israeli jets and artillery hit several military installations in Gaza overnight after a missile was fired into the Israeli town of Sderot on Sunday afternoon.

A Code Red alert was sounded in Sderot at 2.30pm on Sunday, followed by an explosion. A rocket, believed to have been fired from the north of the Gaza Strip, was found between two residential houses in the town.

A Gaza-based organisation called Ahfad al-Sahaba-Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis, affiliated with Salafist groups that identify with Daesh, claimed responsibility for the rocket.

The IDF responded by targeting what an official described as Hamas “infrastructure”, with multiple airstrikes hitting around 30 sites in Gaza belonging to Hamas and other military groups.

An IDF official said retaliation of this type was now “rare”.

"The attacks were out of the ordinary, there is no intention to escalate the situation," he told Haaretz.

No casualties resulted from the rocket that landed in Sderot but five Palestinians were reportedly wounded as a result of the IDF airstrikes.