None injured in first exchange since February
BEIRUT -Two rockets were fired into northern Israel from southern Lebanon yesterday, and Israel responded minutes later with a barrage of 14 rockets and by scrambling fighter jets across the volatile border, according to Lebanese and Israeli media.
No one was reported injured on either side of the border, often a flash point for conflict between Israel and Lebanese or Palestinian militant groups across the rocky frontier.
It was the first exchange of fire between Israel and militant groups in Lebanon since February.
Israel and the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah have been warning in recent weeks that they will retaliate if either side sparks hostilities.
Israeli police said the two rockets landed in the northern Galilee region.
The Israeli military said it fired back at the source of the rocket fire, a village south of the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre.
In 2006, a monthlong war sparked by Hezbollah’s kidnapping of Israeli soldiers on the border left more than 1,000 dead, mostly Lebanese civilians.
But since that conflict, Israel largely has blamed fringe militant groups rather than Iranian-backed Hezbollah for the occasional cross-border salvos. Israel, however, is worried that Hezbollah will become part of the new Lebanese Cabinet and use the US-backed government as a cover to bolster its stockpile of weaponry and intelligence apparatus.
Efforts to build a Cabinet collapsed Thursday after Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri quit, complaining of intransigence by the opposition.
Israel and the West have called on Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah, as demanded by the United Nations. Hezbollah says it needs weapons to defend civilians from Israeli incursions.
The Israeli military said it “considers the Lebanese government and Lebanese military as accountable to prevent such attacks.’’
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said the Israeli shells hit uninhabited areas.
