JERUSALEM (AP) — Militants in Lebanon launched heavy rocket fire into Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, forcing people across Israel’s northern border into bomb shelters, injuring at least two people and escalating regional tensions a day after Israeli police raided Jerusalem’s most sensitive area Holy place.
Israel’s military said 34 rockets were fired across the border and 25 were shot down by its Iron Dome air defense system. Another five rockets hit Israeli territory and the rest of the attacks are being investigated, security forces added. The army’s response will follow “an assessment of the situation” and a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet later on Thursday, it said.
The unusually large rocket salvo fueled fears of a larger conflagration as Israel’s bitter enemy, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, dominates much of southern Lebanon. Over the past two days, tensions have skyrocketed at the sacred compound of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and along the strained Israel-Gaza border.
“The current situation is extremely serious,” said Major General Aroldo Lázaro, the head of the UN peacekeeping force operating along the Lebanese-Israeli border, adding that he has been in contact with authorities in both countries to discuss “another… to avoid escalation.
Earlier Thursday and late Wednesday night, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired multiple rockets at Israel in protest at Israeli police who stormed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City with tear gas and stun grenades. On Thursday, the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon condemned the Israeli storming of al-Aqsa, calling it “a flagrant violation of “religious, moral and human values.” The shrine – the third holiest site in Islam – stands on a hilltop revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
No faction in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the rocket salvo that set off air raid sirens in the north of the country. A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the country’s security forces believed the rockets were fired by a Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group, not Hezbollah fighters. The official said there were no casualties on the Lebanese side.
A Hezbollah spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. While Hezbollah may not have fired the rockets, Israel could blame the group for at least tacitly giving the militants the green light to attack. Both Israel and Hezbollah have avoided all-out conflict since their 34-day war ended in a draw in 2006.
Tensions simmered along the Lebanese border as Israel appears to have intensified its shadow war against targets linked to Iran in Syria, another close ally of Iran, Israel’s nemesis in the region. Two Iranian military advisers have been killed and the country’s two main airports temporarily shut down in suspected Israeli airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks.
Thursday’s barrage sent shrapnel into the air, injuring at least two people, according to the Galilee Medical Center in northern Israel. They include a 19-year-old man who was hit while driving a car in the Arab village of Fassouta, and a 26-year-old who was hit while riding a motorbike. A 60-year-old woman was also injured after falling while sprinting to a bomb shelter, medics said. Israeli police said a bomb squad removed a number of fragments from areas in the north.
Videos on social media showed massive plumes of dark smoke billowing from Israel’s northern hills and streaks across the sky left by the Iron Dome system. Widespread photos showed shrapnel punching a hole in a street in the northern Israeli town of Shlomi and at least one building with windows smashed.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, along with Lebanese officials, reported that Israeli tanks along the border had fired grenades at southern Lebanese towns near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh in response to the rocket fire — a claim strongly disputed by the Israeli military and its retaliation would based on its safety assessment.
The Lebanese army said in a statement it had found rocket launchers and “a number of missiles designed to be launched” near the cities of Zibqin and Qalila in southern Lebanon and was working to dismantle them.
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad hailed the rockets as “a heroic operation against Israeli crimes at Al-Aqsa Mosque.” The leader of the Palestinian Hamas group that governs Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported.
Tensions ran high in Jerusalem after two nights of unrest. Conflicting claims to the sacred compound that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque have spiraled into violence in the past, including a bloody 11-day war in 2021 between Israel and Hamas.
For the past two nights – a volatile period when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover overlap – Palestinians have barricaded themselves inside the mosque with stones and firecrackers. Believers have demanded the right to pray overnight in the mosque – which authorities normally only allow during the last 10 days of the month-long holiday. They have also stayed at the mosque to protest threats by religious Jews to perform ritual animal slaughter at the holy site for Passover.
Israel bans ritual slaughter at the site, but calls by Jewish extremists to revive the practice, including offering cash rewards to anyone who even attempts to bring an animal into the site, have increased fears among Muslims that Israel plans to to take over the premises.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli police stormed the mosque, firing stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse worshipers who had locked the building’s doors. Palestinians threw stones at officials. After several hours of fighting, which left a trail of damage, the police managed to drag everyone out of the premises. On Tuesday evening, the same tensions ended with police brutally beating Palestinians and arresting over 400 people. Israeli authorities control access to the area, but the site is managed by Islamic and Jordanian officials.
Violence at the site has resonated across the region, with condemnations pouring in from Muslim leaders.
___
Associated Press writers Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.