unrest in the Middle East
Israel’s army intercepts rocket fired from Lebanon
The Iron Dome missile defense system fires an interceptor missile (stock image)
© Ilia Yefimovich / DPA
The Israeli army has intercepted a missile from Lebanon with the Iron Dome missile defense system and has denied reports of its own air strikes.
The Israeli army says it intercepted a rocket fired from Lebanon. The rocket was fired from there into Israeli territory and “successfully intercepted,” the army said on Thursday. She also denied Lebanese media reports that she then took retaliatory measures.
No one initially claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, but it followed a pledge by pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon to support “any action” taken by Palestinians against Israel following the violent clashes on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
According to the Israeli army, rocket alarms were triggered as a result of the rocket attacks in the town of Shlomi and in the village of Betzet in northern Israel. According to Israeli rescue services, two people were injured in the rocket fire – a man from shrapnel and a woman on the way to the shelter. Meanwhile, the Israeli media reported not just a rocket, but a “salvo” of projectiles.
Israel rejects reports of its own shelling of Lebanon
Meanwhile, the Israeli army has denied reports by Lebanese state media of alleged attacks on targets in southern Lebanon in response to the rocket fire. Israel has “so far” taken no retaliatory measures, the army said when asked by the AFP news agency.
The Lebanese news agency ANI reported that Israeli artillery fired “several shells from their positions on the border” towards the outskirts of two villages in southern Lebanon, in response to the fire of “several Katyusha-type rockets”.
Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Gallant will “briefly assess the situation with leading security agencies,” said a spokesman for his ministry.
Hezbollah expresses support for Palestinians
The pro-Iranian Hezbollah in Lebanon had previously pledged its full support to Palestinian groups in “any action taken against Israel”. Hezbollah “strongly condemns the attack” on the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and expresses its “full solidarity with the Palestinian people and the resistance groups,” the pro-Iranian militia said on Thursday. She promises to “stand by her side in all measures” to protect believers.
According to the Israeli police, more than 350 people were arrested on Wednesday night after “troublemakers” barricaded themselves in the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Stones were thrown at officials and firecrackers were set off.
After the violent clashes between the Israeli police and Palestinians in Islam’s third holiest site, rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, prompting Israel to respond with its own attacks.
Hezbollah controls large parts of southern Lebanon. It also maintains close ties to the radical Islamist Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, and to the militant Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad, which is also active there. Most recently, the pro-Iranian militia fired rockets at Israel in April last year. The Israeli military responded with artillery fire.
Israel and Lebanon are officially at war
Israel and Lebanon are officially at war. There is always tension at the border between the two countries. Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, has often claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Israel in the past.
The border area between Lebanon and Israel is monitored by the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil). Unifil called for restraint after Thursday’s rocket fire.