At least three explosions sounded, at dawn on Friday, in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon, coinciding with the announcement by Israel of launching raids in Lebanon in response to the launch of a barrage of rockets, Thursday, towards its lands, which accused Palestinian groups of being behind them.
The Palestinian Hamas movement condemned the Israeli raids that targeted the vicinity of the city of Tyre, Lebanon, at dawn on Friday.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the blatant Zionist aggression against Lebanon by targeting the vicinity of the city of Tire at dawn today,” its statement said.
The Israeli army had announced that it had raided, at night, infrastructure sites and other targets belonging to the Palestinian Hamas movement in southern Lebanon.
The IDF spokesman, Avichai Adraei, said in a tweet on Twitter: “The IDF attacked infrastructure sites and other targets belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in southern Lebanon. The IDF will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to operate from Lebanon and considers the Lebanese state responsible for any operation.” Shooting emanates from within its territory.
Two correspondents told AFP in Tire that three consecutive explosions were heard.
A rocket fell, according to an AFP photographer, on the roof of a farmer’s house in one of the orchards near the Rashidieh camp for Palestinian refugees, located south of Tire and close to the area from which the rockets were launched towards Israel, causing material damage but no casualties.
Just Jerusalem Postthe Israeli army hit three Hamas targets in southern Lebanon.
And in Another newspaper reportIsraeli officials stated that they are ready for all possibilities, and the Israeli response will be appropriate to any threat.
“We heard explosions. At least two shells landed near the camp,” Abu Ahmed, a resident of Rashidieh camp, told AFP.
reported Al-Manar channel affiliated to Hezbollah, that the bombing targeted three points in the Tyre area, which are agricultural areas.
The Israeli army said in a brief statement, “The Israeli Defense Forces are currently carrying out strikes in Lebanon. Details will come later.”
The bombing came after Israel announced that more than 30 missiles were launched Thursday afternoon from southern Lebanon towards its northern lands, in a bombing that caused injuries and material damage, and accused Palestinian groups of standing behind it, not Hezbollah, the most prominent political and military force in Lebanon.
At midnight Thursday-Friday, Israeli fighters launched a series of raids on targets in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to make his country’s enemies pay “the price of every attack.”
In a statement issued late Thursday, Netanyahu said, “We will strike our enemies, and they will pay the price for every act of aggression,” according to the Associated Press.
He added that the Israelis will remain united in the face of their external enemies, despite the internal political divisions.
“The Israeli defense establishment is ready to face any threat on any front. We will defend our country and our citizens,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.
However, the head of the caretaker government in Lebanon, Najib Mikati, affirmed his country’s rejection of “any military escalation” from its territory.
After his meeting with Italian Defense Minister Guido Cruzetto, Mikati stressed “Lebanon’s condemnation and denunciation of the missile launch from southern Lebanon,” explaining that his country “absolutely rejects any military escalation emanating from its land and the use of Lebanese territory to carry out operations that destabilize the existing stability.”
“They don’t want war.”
For its part, the United Nations Interim Force in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) confirmed in a statement at dawn Friday, following the bombing carried out by Israel on southern Lebanon, that the two sides “do not want war,” calling on them to calm down.
The international force, which is deployed in the south of the country to separate Israel and Lebanon after several conflicts, announced that the Israeli army had informed it of its intention to respond to the missiles fired from southern Lebanon, before explosions sounded in the vicinity of Tire. She explained that “both sides said they did not want war.”
“Palestinian fire”
Israel said about the firing of more than 30 rockets, Thursday, from southern Lebanon towards its northern lands, that it was “Palestinian fire” and not a direct attack by Hezbollah.
This bombing came on the Jewish Passover holiday and in the wake of violent clashes that took place in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem between Palestinian worshipers and the Israeli security forces, in the wake of which Palestinian factions vowed to launch retaliatory attacks.
“We know with certainty that these are Palestinian fire,” said Israeli army spokesman Colonel Richard Hecht.
“Hezbollah knew”
He added, “We proceed from the principle that Hezbollah was most likely aware of this bombing, and that Lebanon bears a part of the responsibility” for firing these missiles.
“We are also investigating possible Iranian involvement” in this missile attack, he added.
And the Iranian-backed Shiite Hezbollah is the only Lebanese faction that kept its weapons after the end of the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), according to AFP.
The ignition of the Israeli-Lebanese front came on Thursday afternoon in an unprecedented manner since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Therefore, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon warned “UNIFIL” that “the current situation is very dangerous,” calling for “restraint.”
After the rockets were fired from Lebanon, UNIFIL said its chief, Aroldo Lazzaro, was “in contact with the authorities on both sides of the Blue Line,” which serves as the border line between Lebanon and Israel.
The United Nations, Washington and Paris condemned this escalation.
“We condemn the firing of rockets from Lebanon and Gaza at Israel,” said State Department spokesman Vedant Patel, stressing the United States’ firm commitment to Israel’s security.
“We recognize Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself,” he added.
France, in turn, condemned the “indiscriminate firing of missiles targeting Israeli territory from Gaza and southern Lebanon.”
Likewise, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, condemned the missile strikes from southern Lebanon.
“We call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint,” his spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said, stressing the need to “avoid any unilateral action.”
And the bombing from southern Lebanon came shortly after Hezbollah confirmed its support for “all steps” that the Palestinian factions would take against Israel in response to the violence at Al-Aqsa, according to AFP.
The bombing from southern Lebanon on northern Israel coincided with the visit of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Lebanon.
Haniyeh stressed that the Palestinian factions will not stand “idle” in the face of the Israeli “aggression” on Al-Aqsa.
Escalation in Gaza
A Palestinian security source told AFP that Israeli planes “launched a series of raids on several training sites belonging to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) in separate areas in the Gaza Strip.”
In a statement, the Israeli army confirmed the start of its air force raids on the Strip.
In its statement, the army announced that its fighters “targeted, a short time ago, a terrorist tunnel in the Beit Hanoun area (in the northern Gaza Strip) and another in the Khan Yunis area (in the south). Two weapons production sites for Hamas in the northern and central Gaza Strip were also targeted.”
The statement indicated that “the raids came in response to Hamas’ security violations during the past days,” blaming “the Hamas terrorist organization for all terrorist activities from the Gaza Strip.”
Prior to the start of the raids, the armed factions in Gaza affirmed in a joint statement, “the readiness of the resistance to confront and respond with all force to any aggression, and to defend our people in all their places of existence.”
Hamas, which controls Gaza, said, “We hold the occupation responsible for its aggression against Jerusalem and Gaza, and we call on the forces of our people and their factions to unite in an open confrontation (..) and what will happen in the region,” according to AFP.
In turn, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades confirmed in a statement, “Its air defenses confronted the invading Zionist warplanes on the Gaza Strip.”
The Israeli army said in a statement that its drone “hit a heavy machine gun used to fire shots at Israeli army aircraft and Israeli territory.”