Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Monday called on Israel to undertake a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to continued rocket fire from the territory into southern Israel, Israel Radio reported.

During a tour of Beersheba, Aharonovitch said that the constant flow of rockets from Gaza cannot be allowed to continue, giving specific reference to an attack on Monday, in which a woman in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council was injured by shrapnel.

"The difference between an attack that causes such a minor injury and an attack that kills dozens at a kindergarten is very small," Israel Radio quoted Aharonovitch as saying.

The IDF spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that the air force attacked several targets in Gaza overnight, including a smuggling tunnel in the southern Strip and a terrorist center in the north.

No information was been given on possible casualties, but the statement confirmed that the planes returned to their bases safely and that the hits were on target.

The attack was in response to a Kassam rocket fired at southern Israel from Gaza on Monday night.

A woman in her fifties was moderately injured by shrapnel from the rocket, which landed between in open territory in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council. An air raid siren went off before the rocket landed.

The woman was rushed by Magen David Adom paramedics to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

She is a resident of a Beduin community in the western Negev.