Two women including one from Indian state of Kerala were killed and dozens other were injured when Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip fired massive barrages of rockets at southern Israel throughout Tuesday.

In response, the Israeli defence forces retaliated by airstrikes on terror targetsg in the Gaza strip.

The cross-border violence, which erupted on Monday (10 May) following weeks of rising tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, is the worst the region has experienced in year.

The Palestinian terror outfit Hamas reportedly claimed that at one stage on Tuesday (11 May) it fired 137 rockets in around five minutes in an apparent attempt to overwhelm the Iron Dome missile defense system.

In a subsequent barrage on the southern coastal city of Ashkelon, less than an hour later, two women were killed by rockets in apparently separate hits.

The deadly rocket attack directly struck a home where an elderly woman and her caregiver, 32-year-old Soumya Santhosh, lived. Santhosh was killed in the attack while her elderly charge, 80, was hospitalized in serious condition, reports Times of Israel.

Santosh hailed from Kerala and is reportedly survived by her husband and nine-year-old daughter.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan spoke with the family of Santhosh and conveyed his deep condolences at her tragic demise due to the rocket attacks from Gaza.

"We have condemned these attacks and the violence in Jerusalem, and urged restraint by both sides," Muraleedharan said on Twitter.