Israel shelled southern Lebanon on Saturday after a rocket slammed into its territory in a tit-for-tat exchange of fire across their tense border, sources on both sides said.
Israeli rescue services said three people were injured when the rocket struck near the town of Maalot in the western Galilee region, triggering an immediate response from Israel.
“The Israeli army considers this a serious incident and believes it is the responsibility of the Lebanese government and the army to prevent this rocket fire,” an Israeli army spokesman said.
PHOTO: AFP
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora denounced the violence, which caused panic on both sides of the border, while the militant Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah denied any involvement.
“The Israeli shelling is an unacceptable and unjustified violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” Siniora said in a statement. “The rockets launched from Lebanon threaten the country’s security and stability and constitute a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”
He was referring to the resolution that brought an end to the devastating 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon that left more than 1,200 people dead.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman reiterated his opposition to the country being used as a platform for the launch of rockets, saying he regards it as a challenge to Lebanon’s will.
A spokesman for Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency rescue service said three people were lightly wounded and another two were treated for shock.
Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mussawi said the group had “nothing to do” with the attack, which was launched from a region largely controlled by Hezbollah and its Amal party ally.
The head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which patrols the border area, urged maximum restraint.
“The UNIFIL force commander Major General Claudio Graziano has been in contact with the senior commanders of the Lebanese and Israeli army with a view to ensuring that the cessation of hostilities is maintained,” UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said.
A Lebanese army spokesman said Israel fired eight artillery shells after two rockets were launched from a banana plantation near the village of El-Henniyeh, in the El-Qlayleh region about 10km from the border.
There were no reports of injuries in Lebanon.
One of the two rockets landed in Israel and the second apparently malfunctioned and landed in Lebanon, Bouziane said.
Panicked residents could be seen fleeing as Israel retaliated.
“My six-year-old girl was terrified,” said Hassan Faqih, 49, as he headed to the nearby coastal town of Tyre with his wife and two children. “We will stay in Tyre if the situation escalates.”
Last month, rockets were fired on two occasions from Lebanon into Israel in attacks that frayed nerves on both sides of the border and raised fears that Israel’s war on Gaza in December and last month could spread.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, also denied involvement in those attacks.
The Lebanese government, in which Hezbollah is represented, has repeatedly stressed that it is committed to the UN-brokered truce that ended the war.
Earlier this month, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that any attack by Hezbollah would prompt a tough response from Israel.
“I want to say here, on the border, that I don’t recommend that Hezbollah test us because the consequences would be more painful than one can imagine,” Barak said during a visit to the frontier area.
Maalot was the scene of an attack on a school by Palestinian gunmen in 1974 in which 26 people were killed, most of them children.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not