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| Rocket Fired From Lebanon Lands in Israel | Rocket Fired From Lebanon Lands in Israel |
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| JERUSALEM — At least one rocket fired from Lebanon fell in northern Israel on Sunday without causing damage or injury, and Israel responded with artillery fire, according to the Israeli military, in the latest disruption of a fragile cease-fire that has kept the area largely quiet for the past seven years. | |
| The Israeli military said that five rockets had been fired and one appeared to have landed in an open area near the Israeli border town of Kiryat Shimona. The military said it had fired dozens of shells toward the source of the rocket fire. | |
| The Lebanese Armed Forces issued a statement saying that two rockets were fired from the Hasbaya area of southern Lebanon and that the Israeli military responded with 32 shells directed toward the sources of fire, without causing casualties, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency. | |
| The attack came about two weeks after a Lebanese Army soldier fatally shot an Israeli soldier who was driving along the Israeli side of the border, after which Israeli forces fired into Lebanon. The Israeli and Lebanese authorities and United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon described the killing as the individual act of a rogue soldier and quickly worked to defuse tensions. | |
| Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday that Israel held the Lebanese government responsible for fire emanating from its territory and also pointed a finger at Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militia that fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, indirectly implicating it in Sunday’s rocket fire. | |
| “What is happening in Lebanon is that Hezbollah is stationing thousands of missiles and rockets in apartments, in the heart of the civilian population, and is thus perpetrating two war crimes simultaneously,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “It is organizing the firing at civilians, just as it did today, and it is hiding behind civilians as human shields.” | “What is happening in Lebanon is that Hezbollah is stationing thousands of missiles and rockets in apartments, in the heart of the civilian population, and is thus perpetrating two war crimes simultaneously,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “It is organizing the firing at civilians, just as it did today, and it is hiding behind civilians as human shields.” |
| He added that the Lebanese government and army were “not lifting a finger to prevent this arming and these crimes.” | He added that the Lebanese government and army were “not lifting a finger to prevent this arming and these crimes.” |
| There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Sunday, though those in recent years generally appear to have been the work of small militant groups in Lebanon rather than of Hezbollah. | |
| In August, four rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time in two years. A militant group called the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed credit. Israel responded to that attack by bombing what military officials here described as a “terrorist site” between the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Sidon. | In August, four rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel for the first time in two years. A militant group called the Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, an offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, claimed credit. Israel responded to that attack by bombing what military officials here described as a “terrorist site” between the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Sidon. |
| The Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said on Sunday that Israel would not tolerate fire from Lebanese territory and would use more force if necessary. “I do not recommend that anyone test our patience and our determination to preserve the security of Israeli citizens,” he said in a statement. | The Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said on Sunday that Israel would not tolerate fire from Lebanese territory and would use more force if necessary. “I do not recommend that anyone test our patience and our determination to preserve the security of Israeli citizens,” he said in a statement. |
| Notwithstanding the heightened tensions and harsh rhetoric, an Israeli expert said that neither Israel nor Hezbollah, which is embroiled in the civil war in Syria, had an interest now in a full-blown confrontation on the Israeli-Lebanese front. Aviv Oreg, a former head of the “Al Qaeda and Global Jihad” desk in Israel’s military intelligence department, told reporters that some kind of radical Islamic “global jihad” organization was probably behind the rocket fire on Sunday and that the perpetrators might have been trying to provoke Israel into retaliating against Hezbollah, since jihadist groups and Hezbollah are fighting on opposite sides of the conflict in Syria. | |
| The Israeli military said it had filed an official complaint to Unifil, the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, about the latest rocket attack. | |
| The recent events along Israel’s border with Lebanon have coincided with increasing restiveness and deadly clashes along Israel’s border with Gaza and an uptick in Israeli-Palestinian violence related to the West Bank, unnerving people on both sides at a delicate time when the Israelis and Palestinians are engaged in a difficult round of American-brokered peace talks. | The recent events along Israel’s border with Lebanon have coincided with increasing restiveness and deadly clashes along Israel’s border with Gaza and an uptick in Israeli-Palestinian violence related to the West Bank, unnerving people on both sides at a delicate time when the Israelis and Palestinians are engaged in a difficult round of American-brokered peace talks. |
| Late Saturday, the Israeli authorities released a list of 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners who are scheduled to be released late Monday from Israeli jails as part of the peace process. Most of the prisoners were involved in attacks on Israelis and have already served sentences ranging from 19 to 28 years for crimes perpetrated before the Oslo peace accords of the mid-1990s. | |
| The release of prisoners is an emotional issue for both sides. As with the previous two releases, the coming one is expected to be accompanied by an Israeli government announcement about the construction of more than a thousand new homes in West Bank settlements, a move that Palestinian and Western officials have warned could set off a new crisis in the peace talks. | |
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon. | Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon. |