UNIFIL, THE UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, and the Lebanese army have stepped up patrols along the border with Israel after four rockets were fired into northern Israel in the early hours of yesterday morning.
No one was hurt, but some buildings were damaged in an Israeli border community in the western Galilee. Residents said they heard two explosions and that houses shook and a fire started.
Israel directed artillery fire at the area from where they said the rockets were launched.
The Sheikh Abdullah Azzam brigades, a small militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, the first rocket fire into Israel from Lebanon in more than two years. Hezbollah denied any involvement.
The Lebanese army found two improvised rocket launchers in an open area between the villages of Ramish and Ein-Eival.
Commanders from Unifil (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) held emergency meetings with representatives of Israel’s defence forces and the Lebanese army following the attack and urged restraint from all parties.
“This is a serious incident in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701 and is clearly directed at undermining stability in the area,” a Unifil statement read.
In response to the rocket fire the Israeli army went on high alert along the entire stretch of the northern border. Israel’s Home Front minister Matan Vilna’i blamed the government in Beirut.
“The Lebanese government is responsible for everything that happens in Lebanon and everything that emanates from its border,” he said.
Israelis living in the area complained that the early warning sirens failed to work because they had been switched off by the army.
The western Galilee was the target of sustained rocket fire from the Shi’ite Hezbollah during the 2006 Lebanon war, but the border has been largely quiet since then.