A mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip landed on Monday morning in southern Israel, an Israeli army spokesman said.

The shell hit an open space in the Western Negev area, the spokesman told Israel's radio.

On the other side, Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the southern Gaza Strip coast, local sources said.

There were no reports of casualties in the two incidents, according to the Israeli and the Palestinian sources.

Israel and Islamic Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, do not observe a ceasefire though both of them maintain a sort of self-control after Israel ended its major offensive in Gaza in January 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2009)