Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told parliament's foreign-affairs and defense committee yesterday that the rocket could fly 37 miles and strike metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported.

Until now, rockets fired from Gaza have reached up to 25 miles, putting one-eighth of Israel's population within rocket range.

Yadlin said the rocket was fired in recent days, but no further details were immediately available from his closed-session testimony. It was not clear whether the rocket actually flew 37 miles or why Yadlin described it as being of Iranian origin.

The Israeli military has said in the past that rockets that reached Israel were from Iran, citing paint, tool work, and lettering on fragments from projectiles found after impact. But the military has not publicly released clear evidence proving Iranian involvement.

Tehran had no comment. Hamas, the Islamic extremist group that rules Gaza, called Israel's assertions an attempt to "justify the crimes it committed in Gaza."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking during a U.S.-Israel military exercise yesterday, said such missiles threatened the "whole world ... but first of all, they threaten our civilians, our cities."

Israel launched a bruising war against Gaza extremists last winter to quash rocket and mortar fire that had bombarded southern Israeli communities for eight years.

Although the attacks have decreased dramatically - from 3,300 rockets and mortars fired in 2008 to 250 since the war ended - Israeli officials say weapons still reach extremists through tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt.