At least three explosions were heard in the southern Lebanese region of Tire early Friday morning, AFP journalists reported. The attacks occurred near a Palestinian refugee camp, a rocket hit a farmer’s house. A pro-Iranian broadcaster reported that three areas in southern Lebanon were hit.
AFP journalists had previously reported at least three explosions in the Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian information, several training centers of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas were hit there.
On Thursday afternoon, 34 rockets were fired from Lebanon in the direction of Israel – the most violent escalation on the border since the confrontation between the radical Islamic Hezbollah militia and Israel in the Lebanon war in 2006.
Netanyahu then announced retaliation. “We will beat our enemies and they will pay the price for every act of aggression,” Netanyahu said after a security meeting at which, according to the presidential office, “a number of decisions” were made on the recommendation of the Israeli armed forces.
“Israel’s defense ministry is prepared for any threat, regardless of the front,” said Defense Secretary Joav Gallant.
Israel accused Palestinian activists of being behind the shelling during the Jewish Passover holiday that left at least one person injured. “We know for sure that these are Palestinian attacks,” army spokesman Richard Hecht told journalists. “It could be Hamas, it could be Islamic Jihad, we’re trying to find out – but it wasn’t Hezbollah,” he said.
The shelling came two days after Israeli police clashes with Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site. Judaism reveres the Temple Mount there as its holiest place. The use of the Israeli police had triggered international criticism.
The UN peacekeeping mission Unifil in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel said on Friday that Lebanon and Israel “do not want war” and called on “all parties to stop all actions” on both sides of the border.
The mission, which currently has around 10,000 blue helmet soldiers, has been in action for more than 40 years. The reason for its establishment was a seven-day Israeli military offensive against Palestinian fighters in southern Lebanon in March 1978.
