Rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel
2011-11-29 12:32
Jerusalem - Several rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel on Tuesday, the first since 2009, prompting Israel to return fire, military officials said.
Two buildings in Israel's western Galilee area were damaged, Israeli media said, but there were no reports of casualties. Residents said they heard two explosions and that houses shook.
Israel said it was trying to establish who fired the rockets from Lebanon, but that it held the Lebanese government responsible and would deliver a complaint.
"The Lebanese government is responsible for everything that happens in Lebanon and everything that exits from its border," Home Front Defence Minister Matan Vilnai said.
In Lebanon, security sources said four Katyusha rockets were fired into Israel from an area between the villages of Aita Shaab and Rmeish, about 2km from the border.
Plumes of smoke
They said Israel fired four artillery shells in response, but they landed in fields and caused no damage.
An Israeli military spokesperson said the rockets were the first fired since 2009 across a border where a 34-day war was fought in 2006 between Israel and Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
"Several rockets hit the western Galilee. The Israeli army considers the incident severe and is targeting origins of fire," said a statement from the military spokesperson's office.
The Ynet news website said residents saw plumes of smoke where the rockets struck.
The Israeli-Lebanese border has been largely quiet in recent years, though some have worried about a possible spill-over of tensions from a months-old revolt in Syria against President Bashar Assad and from a stiffening of Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.
