About 30 rockets were fired Thursday from Lebanon towards Israel, where they caused an injury and material damage, the day after the violent irruption of the Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
According to the Israeli army, "34 rockets were fired from Lebanon, of which 5 fell in Israel and 25 were intercepted" by the anti-aircraft defense.
According to the official Lebanese agency, Israeli artillery fired "several shells from its positions on the border" near two villages in southern Lebanon, but an Israeli military spokesman interviewed by Agence France-Presse (AFP ) assured that there had "so far" been no response.
Alarm sirens sounded in Shlomi and Moshav Betzet in northern Israel as well as other localities in the region. A "review" is underway to determine the affected locations, the military adds, adding simply that these "statistics are not definitive". At 4:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. Paris time), no claim had been made.
In Fassuta, a village in northern Israel, an AFP reporter saw the blackened remains of a rocket on the road. In Shlomi, other agency reporters saw shops riddled with impact.
Deeming "the current situation (...) extremely serious", the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which monitors respect for the ceasefire at the border, appealed "for restraint and to avoid a additional escalation"
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "is continuously informed of the development of the situation and must carry out an assessment with the heads of the security agencies", following which he will convene the restricted security cabinet, they said. advertise their services.
According to Israeli rescue services, a 19-year-old man was hit by shrapnel and a woman in her 60s suffered minor injuries as she ran for cover.
Earlier Thursday, Lebanon's Hezbollah warned it would support "any action" Palestinian groups might take against Israel after Wednesday's violence in East Jerusalem at Al-Aqsa Mosque, Israel's third holiest site. Islam.
"Solidarity" with the Palestinians
"Hezbollah strongly denounces the Israeli occupation forces' assault on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and its attacks on worshipers," the pro-Iranian movement said in a statement released Thursday morning.
"Hezbollah proclaims its full solidarity with the Palestinian people and the resistance movements, and pledges to support them in all measures they take to protect the worshipers and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to deter the enemy from pursuing his assaults,” he adds.
Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel which effectively controls southern Lebanon, maintains good relations with Hamas, in power in Gaza, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Its secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, received officials from both parties in March and the leader of Hamas, Ismaïl Haniyeh, is currently in Lebanon.
Two rockets were fired Wednesday evening from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, after similar fire the previous night to which Israel responded with airstrikes, amid violence in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The last rocket fire from Lebanon towards Israel dates back to April 2022.
In 2006, the war between Israel and Hezbollah left more than 1,200 dead on the Lebanese side, mostly civilians, and 160 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.
The Shiite movement, considered a "terrorist organization" by many Western countries, is the only Lebanese party to have retained its armament after the end of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990).
