BEIRUT — The Israeli army launched on Thursday more than 15 artillery shells toward Lebanese territory, in response to two rockets fired from inside Lebanon toward northern Israel, state media reported.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported early on Thursday that one rocket was fired from the locality of Bastra, between Kfarchouba and el-Mari in the south toward Israel.
According to security sources who spoke to Reuters, one rocket fell inside Lebanese territory in the village of Wazzani, and the second in Israel close to the disputed village of Ghajar.
The Israeli army initially said it was aware of an explosion near Ghajar, saying it was caused by an old land mine. But after its forces headed to the site of the blast, “it emerged that a launch was carried out from Lebanese territory that exploded adjacent to the border in Israeli territory,” according to an army statement. The military responded by striking the area from where the rockets were launched.
So far, no group claimed responsibility for the rocket attack from Lebanon.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar channel said later in the day that calm has been restored to the villages of Halta, Kfarchouba and Kfarhamam after the Israeli army pounded an open hill in the area only three kilometers away from residential houses. It did not provide more details.
Since the last war fought with Israel in 2006, the powerful militant Hezbollah movement occasionally engages in scuffles with Israel near the border. The two sides have claimed to down each other’s drones in past years, most recently last month when Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone over Lebanese territory.
In April, the border witnessed the heaviest rocket fire since the 2006 war, to which Israel responded by shelling southern Lebanon. Back then, Hezbollah said Palestinian militants were behind the rocket attacks.
Local media reported over the weekend that Israel has erected a fence to the north of Ghajar effectively cutting off the village from Lebanon. Ghajar is split into Lebanese and Israeli sides as it lies on the UN-drawn Blue Line separating Israel from Lebanon.
In a Tuesday tweet, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry condemned what it described as “Israeli attempts to annex” Ghajar and the prevention of Lebanese citizens from entering the northern part of the village in violation of UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war.
For its part, Hezbollah also warned against Israel’s actions in Ghajar. “These dangerous measures and significant developments represent a complete occupation of the Lebanese section of Ghajar, enforced by the use of arms and the imposition of a fait accompli,” the paramilitary group said in a statement on Thursday, coinciding with the rocket launches.
The tensions around Ghajar also coincide with a heated situation in the Shebaa farms, a small land lying on the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel captured the Shebaa Farms from Lebanon in the 1967 Middle East war. The Lebanese government insists the territory is Lebanese and is illegally occupied by Israel.
Israel claimed in early June that Hezbollah had erected tents inside Shebaa Farms, but later said that one of the tents has been evacuated. Hezbollah has not commented on the Israeli reports.
Later in June, Israeli forces fired tear gas at Lebanese protesters near Kfarchouba. The protests erupted in solidarity with a Lebanese farmer who was defending his land against Israeli bulldozers in the area.
