Irish and other UN troops in southern Lebanon are on a state of alert following bombardments in the area which have left a reported 10 civilians dead and 45 injured in the past 48 hours.
Fourteen rockets were fired by Islamic Resistance guerrillas into northern Israel from the area controlled by the Irish UN Battalion around Tibnin yesterday morning.
The rockets fell around the Israeli town of Kiryat Shimona. Although there were no reported Israeli injuries the rocket attack prompted fears that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) would retaliate.
After a similar Islamic Resistance attack in the area last February, the IDF launched its "Grapes of Wrath" bombardment on southern Lebanon, killing up to 200 Lebanese civilians.
The events of the last two days have given rise to fears that there may be a dangerous escalation in violence in the area. All UN troops in the area are on alert and are expecting more fighting.
The latest violence began on Sunday when a landmine, believed to have been planted by the Islamic Resistance, killed a 16-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister at Jezzine, inside the territory in south Lebanon which is occupied by the IDF.
The boy and girl were the children of Mr Assad Nasr, the local leader of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), the Israeli-controlled militia in south Lebanon.
In retaliation, the SLA opened fire with heavy artillery on the Lebanese coastal town of Sidon, about 22 km north-east of the Israeli-controlled zone. The shelling killed eight and wounded 45 civilians. . This prompted further retaliation from the Islamic Resistance, the military wing of the Hizbullah (Party of God) Islamic political party in Lebanon.
According to UN reports, 63 "Katushka" rockets were fired by the guerrillas into northern Israel on Monday evening.
Yesterday morning the Irish Battalion recorded the firing of 14 rockets from their area.
The "Katushka" rockets are crude devices often comprising artillery shells mounted on a homemade launcher pointed towards Israel. No injuries were reported from Kiryat Shimona yesterday although one rocket fired last week hit a synagogue, injuring a woman.
There were also reports that the Lebanese army, which has not been involved in serious hostile actions in the area since the ending of the civil war in the late 1980s, fired 110 artillery rounds into the Israeli-controlled zone. This is seen as an unusual and worrying development in the region.
However, it is the cross-border rocket attacks which are the cause of most concern in the UN-protected area in south Lebanon.
These attacks breach an agreement reached last year which ended the "Grapes of Wrath" bombardment. During that
bombardment more than 100 civilians were killed in a single Israeli attack on the village of Qana.
A spokesman for the Defence Forces said the Irish Battalion area was "tense" but that there had been no further firing from the area up to last evening.