|
HASBAYA, Lebanon: A rocket attack was launched on
northern Israel from the southern Lebanese border area of Habariyeh
early Wednesday and the Jewish state immediately retaliated, an Army
spokesman said.
He said between two and three
rockets were launched from Lebanon and Israel responded with six
artillery shells.
“One of the rockets launched
from Lebanon exploded in place and one or two landed in Israel,”
he said.
A security official in the area
of Habariyeh told Agence France-Presse that five rockets were
launched from an area four kilometers west of the village of Shebaa
and Israel responded within a minute with four rockets that landed
north of the village of Ghajar.
“Three of the five rockets
launched landed in Israel,” the official said.
Schools in the region shut down
and many residents panicked fearing an all-out conflict.
Israeli planes also could be seen
flying over the area at low altitude.
Rocket attacks
In Israel, police spokesman Micky
Rosenfeld told Agence France-Presse that “three rockets landed
outside Kiryat Shmona,” a town at the border between Israel and
Lebanon. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The attack comes less than a week
after three rockets slammed into northern Israel from inside
Lebanon, an attack that lightly wounded two Israelis and raised
fears of another front opening in the Gaza war.
No one has claimed responsibility
for that attack that took place just outside the village of Tayr
Harfa, near the Israeli border.
But the Hezbollah Shiite militia,
which is backed by Syria and Iran and which fought a devastating war
with Israel in 2006, denied involvement.
Representatives of the two main
Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah also denied that their
movements were behind the firings.
The 2006 war killed more than
1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly
soldiers. During the conflict, Hezbollah sent more than 4,000
rockets into northern Israel.
The Lebanese government, in which
Hezbollah is represented, has repeatedly stressed that it was
committed to the UN-brokered truce that ended the 2006 war and that
it does not want to be dragged into the Gaza conflict.
But there are heightened fears
that extremist groups operating in Lebanon could take advantage of
the situation to launch attacks on Israel.
Rising death toll
Wednesday’s attack comes on the
19th day of a massive Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has
killed almost 1,000 Palestinians and sparked widespread outrage
across the Muslim world.
Both the Lebanese army and the UN
force deployed in southern Lebanon (Unifil) have boosted their
patrols in the south of the country fearing that the conflict in
Gaza could escalate.
The UN forces have some 13,000
troops from various countries stationed in southern Lebanon.
The force, which was set up in
1978 to monitor the border between Israel and southern Lebanon, was
considerably beefed up in the wake of the 2006 war.
--AFP
|
