Israeli sources point to Palestinian groups in Lebanon
Israel shells south Lebanon after rocket attack
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The UNIFIL forces patrol a Lebanese border village after rockets were fired onto north Israel last week (File) |
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters)
A number of rockets were fired from Lebanon and hit northern Israel on Wednesday, causing no casualties. Israel responded with artillery fire into south Lebanon, witnesses said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which is the second of its kind since Israeli forces launched their Gaza offensive on Dec. 27, which killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians.
"Three rockets fired into Israel landed outside the city of Kiryat Shmona," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
Israeli sources blamed Palestinian groups in Lebanon for the firing of the rockets, Al Arabiya TV reported. The attack comes on the 19th day of the war in the Gaza Strip -- which has sparked widespread outrage across the Muslim world
A fire brigade spokesman in northern Israel said the rockets landed in fields and no one was hurt.
Security sources in Lebanon said five rockets were fired but two fell short of the Israeli border.
Israeli planes were seen overflying the area at low altitude.
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| Panic on both sides " Whoever is behind this attack is targeting the national consensus and all parties represented within the government. This gives Israel an excuse to attack Lebanon, " Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri Last Thursday, three rockets that Israeli officials said were launched by Palestinian gunmen in Lebanon in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip slammed into northern Israel, wounding two people.
That attack briefly raised fears that gunmen in Lebanon might open a second front against Israel. But Israeli cabinet ministers said last week's rocket strike appeared to be an isolated incident.
With memories still fresh of 2006 -- when war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in the midst of the Jewish state's offensive in Gaza -- Wednesday's incident again sowed panic on both sides of the border.
While Israelis headed for bomb shelters, Lebanese schools shut down and many residents panicked and fled fearing an all-out conflict.
Three booby-trapped rockets were later discovered in the area by the Lebanese army and troops from U.N.'s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL.
The Israeli army warned the Lebanese government that it was responsible for preventing such attacks while Beirut slammed the incident saying it gives Israel an excuse to attack and UNIFIL urged restraint on all sides.
An Israeli army spokesman said the Jewish state "Israel considers it the responsibility of the Lebanese army and government to prevent rocket fire from Lebanese territory," a spokesman said.
Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri said that "whoever is behind this attack is targeting the national consensus and all parties represented within the government."
"This gives Israel an excuse to attack Lebanon," he said, adding that Hezbollah was part of a national consensus and that "someone is trying to drag Lebanon into a conflict and is moving rockets from one area to another."
Meanwhile UNIFIL commander Major General Claudio Graziano urged "maximum restraint and is working with both parties to maintain the cessation of hostilities, " spokeswoman YasminaBouziane told AFP, referring to Israel and Lebanon.
The rockets were launched from a mountainous area, where the Lebanese army and the UNIFIL last week found a weapons cache.
On Wednesday the Lebanese army deployed in force in the area, seeking to collect evidence. |
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| All possibilities " We have to act as though all possibilities are real and open (against Israel) and we must always be ready for any eventuality, " Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah Last week Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned that "all possibilities" were open against Israel amid its deadly offensive in Gaza.
"We have to act as though all possibilities are real and open (against Israel) and we must always be ready for any eventuality, " Nasrallah said on Jan. 7 as he addressed tens of thousands of supporters via video link at his stronghold in Beirut's suburbs.
His comment marked the first time he has spoken so openly on the possibility of a renewed conflict with Israel since the war in Gaza began.
The last time rockets from Lebanon slammed into northern Israel was on June 17, 2007. They landed in Kiryat Shmona causing minor damage and no casualties.
At the time, Hezbollah denied responsibility and Israel also said Hezbollah was not involved in the attack and blamed it on an unnamed Palestinian group.
Israel and the Hezbollah militia fought a 34-day war in 2006, after gunmen from the Lebanese Shiite movement seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.
The 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.
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.
UNIFIL has 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. |
http://www.alarabiy a.net/articles/ 2009/01/14/ 64183.html
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