Israeli warplanes early on Wednesday staged a raid on a Palestinian base in the southern outskirts of Beirut, a military spokesperson said.
He said the Israeli army attacked “a base of the PFLP-GC [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril] situated south of Beirut.”
The base was “in the sector of Noueyma, near Damour,” he said.
“This raid is a riposte to the rocket attack against the north of Israel,” he declared. “We consider this kind of attack serious.”
Seven Katyusha rockets were fired at north Israel from southern Lebanon overnight on Wednesday, Lebanese police said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility.
A spokesperson in southern Lebanon for the Shi’ite radical Hezbollah movement, which controls the border between Lebanon and Israel, told Agence France Presse he knew nothing about the incidents.
Sultan Abu Aynaeyn, in charge of the Palestinian Fatah movement in Lebanon, strongly denied any implication by Palestinians in a statement to a local television station.
The Lebanese foreign ministry did not react to the new wave of violence amidst an ongoing political crisis.
The police said two rockets were fired from the western sector, 20km southeast of Tyre near the border, and five others from the eastern sector on Aadaysse hill. All of them targeted the Israeli town of Kyriat Shmona, they added.
Late on Tuesday Israeli security sources said at least three Katyusha rockets slammed into Israeli territory after being fired from Lebanon. Israeli public radio said five people had been slightly wounded.
Kiryat Shmona came under attack and electricity supplies were cut, they said.
Witnesses said that two houses were hit by a rocket. Local people were told to go down to shelters.
Explosions were also heard at Shlomi, a small town in western Galilee, Israeli radio reported.
General Udi Adam, commander of the northern military region of Israel, told the radio station: “The Palestinian groups are responsible for Katyusha rocketing of Kyriat Shmona, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hezbollah had given them the green light.”
“We will not permit the firing of Katyushas against our territory becoming the norm,” he warned.
At least three Israeli assault helicopters were flying very low over the frontier region, especially the eastern sector of south Lebanon.
It was the first time in years that such a big attack had taken place outside the disputed Shebaa Farms sector on the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
Last month four Hezbollah fighters were killed and 11 Israeli soldiers wounded in fighting on the border between Israel and Lebanon, notably in the Shebaa Farms region.
That sector was taken by Israel from Syria in 1967 and Beirut is claiming it with the support of Damascus.
The latest incidents broke out as the Lebanese government is going through a serious crisis due to the boycotting of Fuad Siniora’s coalition Cabinet by the Shi’ite ministers from Hezbollah and the Amal movement which is close to Syria.
The Cabinet resulted from the first general elections held after the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon in April following the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. – AFP