Britain has condemned the firing of five rockets from Gaza into the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon yesterday.

Minister for the Middle East, Hugh Robertson said that the rockets fired into Israel were a “violation of international law”.

“All parties must respect the November 2012 ceasefire agreement in full,” he said. “The people of Gaza and Israel will only lose from further violence.”

The rockets, launched at just before 2am were successfully intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system, which has been in operation since 2011.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, but Israel says it holds Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, responsible for any attack originating from the territory.

Palestinian sources said that retaliatory Israeli air strikes against two Hamas camps left five people injured.

But according to the Israeli Air Force, four separate sites were targeted including “a terror site, an underground rocket-launcher, a weapons-storage facility and a weapons-manufacturing site.” The IDF wrote on its blog that for all four sites direct hits were confirmed.