Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a rocket into southern Israel´s Eshkol district on Friday evening, the military said, but there were no reports of casualties.

Early on Friday Israeli warplanes staged two air strikes on the Gaza Strip, in response to rocket fire on Thursday night.

A Palestinian militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), said it had launched one of Thursday´s rockets "in defence of Al-Quds," the Arabic name for Jerusalem, where there has been a rise in tensions in the Old City compound that houses the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Clashes briefly broke out on Friday between Israeli police and "hundreds" of Palestinian stone-throwers at the flashpoint compound, police said, adding that they used stun grenades against the demonstrators.

Police said four people had been arrested and 11 of their officers were "lightly injured from stones."

In the Gaza town of Khan Yunis, thousands of Palestinians also marched in support of Palestinian sovereignty in Jerusalem.

Thursday night´s PRC statement came as the other Palestinian factions were in Cairo, where talks on forming a unity government between Fatah and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, have been postponed. The PRC is not part of the Cairo process for Palestinian unity.

Since the beginning of the year, Palestinian militants in Hamas- controlled Gaza have fired more than 40 rockets at southern Israel, according to army figures.

Hamas has maintained a tacit truce with Israel, but other armed groups regularly fire rockets across the border, usually sparking retaliatory air strikes. (Copyright © 2012 Agence France Presse. 02/24/12)