July 6, 2023
Updated 5 hours ago
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Lebanese media reported that Israeli shells hit the outskirts of the villages of Kfar Shouba
The Israeli military said it responded with artillery fire after an anti-tank missile was fired from Lebanon.
Some parts of the rocket “crashed in Lebanon and some parts fell next to the fence in the city of Ghajar in Israeli territory,” a statement said.
The Lebanese state news agency reported that more than 15 Israeli shells hit the outskirts of the Lebanese villages of Kfar Shouba and Halta.
So far, no militant group has claimed to be behind the rocket launch.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifil, called on all sides to “exercise restraint and avoid any action that could lead to further escalation” at the border, where tensions have been rising in recent months.
In April, the Israeli military carried out air strikes on targets it said belonged to the Palestinian militant group Hamas in southern Lebanon after more than 30 rockets were fired into Israeli territory.
It was the largest such barrage from Lebanon since the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Unifil said its peacekeepers detected explosions near al-Majidiya just after 08:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Thursday and that while they could not confirm the cause, the sounds were consistent with a possible rocket launch .
At around 12:00 p.m. they spotted shelling from Israel hitting Kafr Shouba, the sources said.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Security sources in Lebanon told Portal that instead of one anti-tank missile, two missiles were fired at Israel.
The Israeli military initially said a missile “exploded next to the Blue Line on Israeli territory,” referring to the United Nations-defined border between the states.
However, it was later said that after assessing the shrapnel, the projectile was identified as an anti-tank missile and that some of its parts crashed on Israeli territory near Ghajar.
Israel currently occupies both halves of Ghajar and should have withdrawn from the Lebanese half under the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.
Hezbollah has not commented on the rocket fire. But on Thursday morning, the Iran-backed group released a statement condemning the “serious measures” taken by Israeli forces recently in Ghajar, including “the erection of barbed wire and the construction of a concrete wall encircling the entire city.” .
Last month, Israel filed a complaint with the United Nations, saying Hezbollah had set up two tents in the area, a few meters over the border on Israeli land.
Israeli media reported on Sunday that the group dismantled one of the tents due to growing international pressure.
Thursday’s shooting also comes a day after Israeli forces completed a major operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.