Naharnet

2 Rockets Fired at Israel in New Attack from Southern Lebanon

Two rockets were fired Sunday night from southern Lebanon towards Israel, in the third such attack in four days, drawing an Israeli retaliation.

“At 12:25 am, unknown individuals fired two rockets from al-Qlayleh plain (near the southern city of Tyre) towards the occupied territories (Israel),” Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

LBCI television said Israel responded by firing several shells at the outskirts of al-Hinniyeh and al-Ezriyeh in Tyre district, amid overflights in the area by its military aircraft.

Israeli forces also violently bombarded the peripheries of al-Mansouri and Majdel Zoun in Tyre district, according to NNA.

The Jib al-Sweid area in the outskirts of the town of Zibqin was also targeted by Israel, the agency added.

Earlier on Sunday, the Lebanese Army found a launchpad from which three rockets were fired overnight Saturday from the Tyre region towards northern Israel, NNA reported.

The launchpad was discovered in the Ras al-Ain plain, south of the al-Rashidiyeh Palestinian refugee camp, and an “unexploded bomb” was also found in the location, the agency said.

The explosive device was removed from the site after it was examined by a military expert.

On Saturday night, unidentified men launched three rockets towards Israel from al-Qlayleh plain to the south of Tyre in southern Lebanon, NNA had reported.

The Israeli army said two rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel without causing any casualties.

"Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in the Nahariya region," a coastal town around 12 kilometers from the border with Lebanon, an Israeli army spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

Israel responded with artillery fire targeting the firing points.

A Lebanese security source told AFP at least one rocket was fired at around 10:20 pm (1920 GMT) from an area south of the port of Tyre, about a dozen kilometers from the border.

Saturday's attack followed the launch of a Katyusha rocket from southern Lebanon into Israel early Friday, also without causing casualties or damage.

Israel had filed a complaint to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which monitors the border between Lebanon and Israel, after Friday's attack.

Israeli military officials said they believed the attack was carried out by a small Palestinian group in an act of solidarity with militants from Gaza's Hamas movement engaged in a deadly confrontation with the Israeli army which began on Tuesday.

In Lebanon, security forces managed to arrest at a western Bekaa hospital one of the militants behind Friday's attack, after he was seriously injured while firing the rockets.

Y.R.


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