Gaza rocket fired at Israel, no wounded—police

JERUSALEM—A rocket fired from Gaza crashed into southern Israel on Sunday, without causing casualties or damage, shortly after the arrival of US Secretary of State John Kerry on a peace bid, police said.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP the rocket landed in an uninhabited sector of the Negev desert, as Kerry started a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Kerry is to hold a new round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on how to break a years-long impasse in direct peace negotiations.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon warned on Wednesday that his country would respond to any attacks on its territory and not allow its people to come under fire.

The Gaza-Israel border has been largely quiet since November when an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended a deadly eight-day confrontation between the Jewish state and militants of the Islamist movement which rules the territory.

But since late February, there have been four other cases of rocket fire on Israel, three of which were claimed by Salafist militants.