A rockets barrage launched from Gaza to Israel's Tel Aviv on Saturday afternoon was intercepted by an Iron Dome anti-missile battery placed earlier in the day near the city.

Sirens went off in Tel Aviv, as well as its neighboring cities of Rishon Lezion, Ramat Gan, Holon at 4:30 p.m. local time (1430 GMT) Saturday afternoon, for the third time in the past 36 hours. There were no injuries or damages in the attacks, as some of the rockets landed in open fields south of the city.

Xinhua's reporter residing in central Tel Aviv said hearing a sound of an explosion from the shelter she was at, while local news outlets reported that two missiles were fired and at least one was intercepted by the Iron Dome battery.

Eye witnesses told the Ynet news website that they had seen two trails of smoke in the sky northern of Tel Aviv and what appears to be an explosion in the sky.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack and said they had launched a Fajr-5, a long-range missile assumed to be manufactured in Iran.

Earlier on Saturday, an Iron Dome battery was situated near Tel Aviv, following two barrages on Thursday and Friday, which targeted the country's commercial and cultural capital.

The battery was set to be deployed only from 2013. However, the recurring attacks on the city -- the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, set the battery into motion on Saturday.

Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip against the militant groups, entered its fourth day on Saturday. It started with the targeted killing of Ahmed al-Jaabari, chief of Hamas' military wing, on Wednesday.

Since Wednesday, the Israeli Air Force struck over 832 targets, including caches of long-range missiles and headquarters of Hamas and other militant groups, as well as smuggling tunnels. Meanwhile, around 650 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip, from which the Iron Dome batteries near the southern communities intercepted about 211 rockets.

According to the Palestinians, 35 people have died in the four- day operation and 300 have been wounded.