Israel shells positions inside southern Lebanon

The Israeli military on Sunday evening shelled several positions inside Lebanon after a number of rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, according to a Lebanese security source.

“Israeli artillery shells struck several locations inside southern Lebanon in response to the launch of rockets by an unknown group towards Israel,” the source, who preferred anonymity, told Anadolu Agency.

“Israeli warplanes also carried out several mock air raids over areas in southern Lebanon,” he added, noting that the move had prompted the Lebanese army — along with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) — to move troops from the coastal city of Tyre to the southern city of Naqoura.

Hours earlier, the Israeli army announced that three rocket-propelled grenades had fallen in an open area of ​​Israel’s northern Galilee region near the border with Lebanon without causing casualties.

According to a second Lebanese security source who spoke to Anadolu Agency, an “unknown group” fired two rocket barrages from the Rashidiyeh Palestinian refugee camp near Tyre towards northern Israel.

In a statement issued Sunday evening, UNIFIL described the rocket barrages as a “violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701”.

“It is imperative to identify and apprehend the perpetrators of this attack,” UNIFIL added. “Additional troops have been deployed on the ground and patrols have been intensified across our area of operations… to prevent any further incidents.”

While no group has claimed responsibility for the rockets fired from Lebanon, they came shortly after a prominent Hezbollah commander, Samir Kuntar, was killed by an airstrike on Saturday night outside Syrian capital Damascus — an airstrike for which the Lebanese group blamed Israel.

In a statement issued Sunday morning, Hezbollah asserted that Kuntar had been killed by “a Zionist airstrike”.

Although Israel has not officially taken responsibility for the strike, a number of Israeli officials have praised the operation.