Rockets hit northern Israel from Lebanon

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1005076 [headline] => Rockets hit northern Israel from Lebanon [abstract] => Three rockets fired from Lebanon have slammed into northern Israel in the second such attack in less than a week that comes amid a devastating war in the Gaza Strip, officials say. [keywords] => Gaza, rocket [content] =>

Three rockets fired from Lebanon have slammed into northern Israel in an attack that frayed nerves on both sides of the tense border for the second time in less than a week.

"Rockets fell in northern Israel without causing injuries or damage," an Israeli army spokesman said.

"The Israeli army responded immediately by firing in the direction from where the rockets were launched." In Lebanon, a security official said that several rockets were launched in the area of Habariyeh and that the Israeli military retaliated with artillery shells.

Israeli planes also could be seen overflying the area at low altitude.

The attack comes on the 19th day of a massive Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip -- which has sparked widespread outrage across the Muslim world. With memories still fresh of 2006 -- when war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in the midst of a Jewish state's offensive in Gaza -- Wednesday's incident again sowed panic on both sides of the border.

While Israelis headed for bomb shelters, Lebanese schools shut down and many residents panicked and fled fearing an all-out conflict.

"This is inexcusable and aims to paralyse day-to-day life," said Omar Batheesh, a 60-year-old potato farmer in the area, denouncing those behind the rocket strikes.

The rockets were launched from a mountainous area, where the Lebanese army was deployed in force on Wednesday seeking to collect evidence. An Israeli army spokesman said:

"Israel considers it the responsibility of the Lebanese army and government to prevent rocket fire from Lebanese territory."

Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr stressed following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday: "Lebanon will not be a base for launching missiles.

Lebanon is not a theatre for war and this is a decision made by the government, the army, the resistance and the Lebanese people." On January 8, three rockets slammed into northern Israel from inside Lebanon, lightly wounding two Israelis in an attack in which the Hezbollah Shiite militia denied any involvement.

The Lebanese government, in which Hezbollah is represented, has repeatedly stressed that it was committed to the UN-brokered truce that ended the 2006 war and that it does not want to be dragged into the Gaza conflict.

But there are heightened fears that extremist groups operating in Lebanon could take advantage of the situation to launch attacks on Israel and analysts have said that last week's incident was likely to have been carried out with the militia's tacit approval.

"Nothing happens in the south without Hezbollah's knowledge," said Osama Safa, head of the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies.

Last week Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned that "all possibilities" were open against Israel amid its deadly offensive in Gaza. Before the January 8 attack, the last time rockets from Lebanon slammed into northern Israel was on June 17, 2007.

They landed in Kiryat Shmona causing minor damage and no casualties. At the time, Hezbollah denied responsibility and Israel also said Hezbollah was not involved in the attack and blamed it on an unnamed Palestinian group.

Israel and the Hezbollah militia fought a 34-day war in 2006, after guerrillas from the Lebanese Shiite movement seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.

The war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

During the conflict, Hezbollah sent more than 4,000 rockets into northern Israel. Israel's war on the Hamas movement -- like Hezbollah backed by Iran -- entered its 19th day on Wednesday with the Palestinian death toll nearing 1,000.

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Israel's army fought street battles with Hamas fighters in Gaza's main city on Tuesday and bombarded the southern border from the air as the death toll from its war on Hamas neared the 1,000 mark.

"This is the 18th day of the Israeli aggression against our people, which is becoming more ferocious each day as the number of victims rises," Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said as terrified Gaza residents fled for their lives.

"Israel is keeping up this aggression to wipe out our people over there," added Abbas, speaking from his base in the West Bank.

Israeli special forces backed by tanks and air strikes barrelled their way ever deeper into Gaza's City, advancing several hundred metres (yards) into several neighbourhoods in the south, witnesses said. The thud of tank shells and the crackle of gunfire echoed through much of the day.

Although there were no reports of air strikes in the evening, residents reported extensive gunbattles in Zeitun neighbourhood and Jabaliya refugee campon the city outskirts, where Apache helicopter gunships were also in action.

Palestinian medical sources said around 70 people were killed on Tuesday, bringing the overall toll to around 975 Palestinians, with a further 4,400 wounded.

Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed in combat or by rocket attacks since December 27, when the Jewish state began its deadliest ever offensive on Gaza, ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement since mid-2007.

Israel also carried out a wave of bombing raids on the border town of Rafah, sending hundreds of people fleeing onto the streets.

"There are continuous airstrikes along the Egyptian border - about 60 families have all fled their houses which are situated several hundred metres from the border," Jawad Harb, a Palestinian working for the international aid agency CARE, told AFP as a series of deafening blasts echoed in the background.

The UN's humanitarian office OCHA said the exact number of people who had fled their homes was unknown but added that more than 35,000 displaced people spent the night in temporary shelters, an increase of more than 7,400 on the previous 24 hours.

The Israeli military said its warplanes had attacked more than 100 targets since early on Monday morning, including 55 weapons-smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza.

Eighteen rockets and mortar rounds were fired into Israel, an army spokesman said, barely a quarter of the number recorded at the start of the offensive. No casualties were reported.

Israel's military chief said Operation Cast Lead was making progress but warned that troops faced "complicated" conditions in Gaza City, home to more than half a million Palestinians and where Israel has little combat experience.

"We have already achieved a lot against both Hamas's infrastructure and its military wing but we still have work to be done," the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, told lawmakers.

A Hamas delegation is currently in Cairo for talks on a Western-backed proposal drawn up by President Hosni Mubarak to end the fighting.

A senior source in Cairo indicated Egypt was getting increasingly frustrated at Hamas's response so far to its initiative, saying "they need to say 'yes', now, to our plan."
   One of Hamas's top leaders, Mussa Abu Marzuk, acknowledged the movement had "substantial observations" about the initiative but said there was "still a chance" they would accept the plan.

Hillary Clinton, due to take over as US secretary of state in a week's time, said Barack Obama's administration would make "every effort" to forge peace but ruled out talks with Hamas until it recognised Israel's right to exist.

"You cannot negotiate with Hamas until it renounces violence, recognises Israel and agrees to abide by past agreements," she told a Senate confirmation hearing. "That is just for me an absolute."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and with Mubarak, pressing them "for the specific measures necessary to deliver a full and sustainable ceasefire" in line with last week's UN Security Council Resolution.

Brown's office said he was "deeply troubled" by the suffering in Gaza, urged Israel to respect its humanitarian commitments and called on Arab leaders to "say more clearly that Hamas must disarm."

Egypt and Saudi Arabia blocked a proposal by Qatar for an extraordinary summit on the crisis later this week by saying discussions should instead take place at a summit in Kuwait already scheduled for January 19.

Aid agencies have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the territory where the vast majority of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid and is already reeling from 18 months of punishing Israeli blockade.

"Israeli bombardment is causing extensive destruction to homes and to public infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip and is jeopardizing water, sanitation and medical services," said an OCHA field report.

"As of this morning, 60 percent of Gazans are not receiving any power. The rest receive electricity intermittently."

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 14 January 2009 [articletime] => 14 January 2009 [display_order] => 4 ) ) [comments] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [articles_ugc_id] => 16457 [author] => Peter [source] => Sydney [content] => We are in 21 century & still group of people do not have the basic human rights. Israel is a strange state in the middle of Arab region. The British Empire implant this state by force & killing. This military state will never have peace with its neighbours because it is based on war ideology. Meanwhile the innocent people will keep pay their blood until the civilised world realise that backing up & covering Israeli crimes will never solve the problem & the solution is to give the Palestinians their rights & allowing them to return their land. [user_headline] => Israel when and where is the next war [comment_date] => 15 Jan 2009 9:28 AEST [agree] => 4 [disagree] => 2 ) ) ) [winston] => test )