At least two rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Friday, prompting Israeli artillery to shell the fruit groves from which they were fired, security officials on both sides of the border said.
No casualties were reported by Israeli police, who said two rockets landed. Lebanese security sources, who reported at least two outgoing missiles and 15 incoming Israeli shells, did not say who might have fired the rockets.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that Israel fired about a dozen artillery rounds in response to several rockets.
The Israeli army holds the Lebanese government responsible for preventing such attacks, the spokesman said.
It was the first time since February that rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel, raising tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.
Occasional salvoes since then have been blamed by Israeli, Lebanese and UN peacekeeping forces in the area largely on fringe militant groups rather than on Hezbollah, the Iranian and Syrian-backed Shiite movement, which remains a powerful force in Lebanon, especially in the south.
Both Washington and the UN condemned the violence and urged continued adherence to a 2006 truce that ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah.
P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the US State Department, said the rocket fire was in “clear violation” of that ceasefire and showed “the urgent need to bring arms in Lebanon under control of the state.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides, in a statement, to exercise restraint and said UN peacekeeping troops known as UNIFIL were “investigating the circumstances of the incident.”
Meanwhile, US special envoy George Mitchell left on Friday to visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt in hopes of reviving peace talks.
Mitchell has been trying to put together a package under which Israel would freeze settlement construction and Arab nations would make gestures toward recognizing the Jewish state as a precursor to the resumption of peace talks.
The envoy hopes to secure a deal for a possible meeting at the UN General Assembly this month among Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US President Barack Obama.
US officials have declined to speculate on the odds of that occurring or of peace talks, which have been stalled since December, resuming.
“We are in discussions. Where they lead and how quickly, we’ll see,” Crowley told reporters as he announced Mitchell’s travel.
The spokesman said Mitchell was expected to visit Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt after his talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials but he declined to specify his exact travel plans.
Netanyahu’s refusal so far to stop settlement activity has led to a rare Israeli diplomatic rift with Washington, and the issue of ceasing construction is likely to be among the most difficult on Mitchell’s trip.
Israel on Monday approved the building of 455 settler homes in the West Bank, a move that drew Palestinian protests and rare US criticism but that could pave the way for the construction moratorium sought by Washington.
Some 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, land which Israel captured in a 1967 war and Palestinians seek for a state, and Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.
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