Several missiles were fired from southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, with at least one intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system over northern Israel, the military said.
There was no immediate acknowledgment of responsibility, but the launches came just hours after Lebanon’s Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah said it would support “any action” taken by Palestinian groups following clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque flashpoint on the Temple Mount in Israel could seize Jerusalem.
Incoming missile sirens sounded in the western Galilee towns of Betzet and Shlomi, near the border with Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces said a missile had been identified and intercepted by the Iron Dome.
Shortly thereafter, sirens continued to wail in other towns in the area.
Footage circulating on the internet showed plumes of smoke from the Iron Dome interceptor missiles. Magen David Adom emergency services said a man was slightly injured by shrapnel and a woman was injured while running to the bomb shelter.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be briefed on what happened on the first day of Passover and will hold an assessment with military and security leaders, his office said.
The alleged rocket attack came as tensions were high following rocket attacks from Gaza, clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and a suspected Iranian drone launched from Syria earlier in the week.
After these incidents, Hezbollah seemed to suggest that they might join the fight as well. And while it’s possible the rocket fire from Lebanon was carried out by Palestinian groups based there, it’s unlikely they would do so without the tacit approval of the terrorist group that controls southern Lebanon.
“Hezbollah strongly condemns the attack by the occupying Israeli forces on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and their attacks on the worshipers,” Hezbollah said in a statement.
Hezbollah supporters attend a televised address by Lebanese terror group leader Hassan Nasrallah in the southern suburbs of Beirut, February 16, 2023. (Anwar Amro/AFP)
“Hezbollah expresses its full solidarity with the Palestinian people and the resistance groups and promises that it will stand with them in whatever measures they take to protect the believers and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to prevent the enemy from to continue its attacks,” the group said.
Global concern has increased after Israeli police clashed with Palestinians inside Islam’s third holiest site, sparking an exchange of rockets and airstrikes with terrorists in Gaza, with fears of a further escalation.
The fighting raised fears of a major conflagration. Similar clashes erupted two years ago in a bloody 11-day war between Israel and Hamas. Hezbollah’s warning raises the specter of an even bigger conflict.
Hezbollah has close ties with Hamas, which rules Gaza, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, also based in the coastal enclave.
In the summer of 2006, Israel and Hezbollah waged a war in Lebanon that killed about 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers, and nearly 1,200 Lebanese, including several hundred Hezbollah fighters, according to the Israeli army.
Terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a series of rockets early Thursday morning, triggering missile warning sirens in Israeli communities near the border, the military said.
The salvo came after projectiles were fired from the coastal enclave the night before and Palestinians clashed again with police at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque on the second day.
The IDF said seven surface-to-air missiles were fired, all of which exploded in the sky. It added that two of the rockets were fired towards the Mediterranean Sea and the rest at Israel. The rockets likely targeted Israeli Air Force aircraft in the area.
The launches set off alarm systems in the communities of Ranen, Patish, Dorot and Havat Shikmim and residents were ordered to hide in bomb shelters.
The army said it did not fire interceptor missiles at the incoming missiles. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening, one of which failed to cross the border while the other landed in an open area.
Shortly thereafter, renewed fighting broke out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, and riots broke out along the Gaza Strip border and in several Arab-Israeli communities.
The violence followed skirmishes between police and worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday, followed by rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli retaliation in the Strip on Wednesday morning.
Border police stand guard in front of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City during clashes with Palestinians on April 5, 2023. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
The IDF has yet to respond to the projectiles fired Wednesday night.
The unrest came amid fears of a possible escalation during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which often fuels a rise in Israeli-Palestinian tensions and coincides with Passover and Easter this year. Passover began on Wednesday evening. The first two weeks of Ramadan had gone relatively smoothly.
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and is revered as the site of both ancient Jewish temples. The site is Islam’s third holiest site and is managed by Jordan as part of a delicate deal with Israel.
Tens of thousands of believers visit Al-Aqsa during the month of Ramadan, regularly leading to a rise in tensions with Israel and violence.
The Gaza Strip’s ruling Hamas terror group on Tuesday condemned the mosque raid as an “unprecedented crime” and called on West Bank Palestinians to “go en masse to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to defend it.”
The clashes led to about 16 rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel early Wednesday. Sderot Municipality said one of the rockets hit a factory in the industrial zone and caused damage. Nobody was hurt.
In response, Israel launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, hitting several Hamas facilities.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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