Breaking: Rockets Fired From Southern Lebanon Over Israel’s North

Iron Drome

A short time ago, civilians in Israel’s northern region faced rocket fire from Southern Lebanon. Three or four rockets were fired over Israeli territory. One of the rockets was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system between the northern Israeli cities of Acre and Nahariya. The remainder of the rockets of fell outside of Israeli territory.
 
 There were no immediate reports of casualties. The red alert siren sounded in the cities Nahariya, Acre, Kiryat Shmona and Karmiel, and residents reported hearing explosions.

Lebanese media reported that the IDF promptly retaliated, attacking targets in south Lebanon, but the army denied those reports.

An Israeli Iron Dome battery intercepted one of the rockets. Israeli TV aired footage of minor damage caused by a fragment from the rocket that fell on the outskirts of a town outside Nahariya. It was initially unclear where the other three rockets fell.

 

Damage caused by the blasts

Several residents were treated for shock.

Lebanese media reported that two volleys of rockets had been fired from a Palestinian refugee camp near the Lebanese town of Tyre. There was an attempt to fire a third volley, but the missiles fell short of the border. The IDF said four makeshift rocket launchers had been located east of Tyre.

 

IDF sources said they regarded the incident as a one-off attack by a jihadist group rather than the beginning of a wider campaign. The army also called on northern residents to remain close to bomb shelters, though they could otherwise go back to their normal routines.

 

A resident of Kibbutz Evron, near Nahariya, told Ynet that the alarm sounded after “two booms” were heard, and that the residents quickly moved into bomb shelters.

 

“I heard booms,” a resident of Nahariya told Channel 2. “Everyone is in the bomb shelters.”

He said that residents hadn’t heard alarms for seven years — since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

 

“I was on the phone to my grandma” when the alarms rang out. “I put down the phone and went down to the shelter,” he said.

 

There were reports Wednesday in Lebanon that Israeli helicopters had circled in the south of the country.

 

There were several reports in the past year of attempts to fire rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon. In November, during Israel’s brief round of fighting with Hamas in Gaza, Lebanese army forces operating in the town of Marjaayoun, about 10 kilometers north of the border, found and disarmed several rockets aimed at Israel.

 

One of four rockets fired from Lebanon into northern Israel

Rockets are a key tactic of the Lebanese Hezbollah and other terror groups on Israel’s northern and southern borders.

 

Thousands of projectiles fell on Israel during the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, and Hezbollah has since stockpiled tens of thousands of rockets it has said will be launched at Israeli cities in future fighting.

 

Israel last week deployed a sixth Iron Dome battery north of Tel Aviv, with an eye to the missile threat from the north.

 

The anti-missile system is a keystone of Israel’s air defense array and successfully intercepted hundreds of short- and medium-range missiles shot at Israeli cities during the conflagration in Gaza in November.