Lebanon rejects ‘increase’
Lebanon’s acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he rejected any “escalation” from his country following the rocket attack.
Israeli emergency services reported a man with shrapnel injuries and a woman with injuries while running to a shelter during the attack.
Inspecting her damaged office in the town of Shlomi, 46-year-old Shlomi Naaman told AFP: “I heard sirens, I heard booms, I was in my house, it was very, very scary.”
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which patrols the border area between the two countries technically still at war, urged restraint.
“The current situation is extremely serious,” the force said. “Unifil urges restraint and avoidance of further escalation.”
“In view of the volatile and dangerous situation, as per standard protocol, civilian and military personnel were ordered to take shelter in bunkers at their bases,” the UN force said.
The Israeli army previously denied reports from Lebanon’s national news agency that it had struck targets in southern Lebanon.
According to Lebanese reports, Israeli artillery fired “several shells from their positions on the border” towards the outskirts of the two villages after “several Katyusha-type rockets” were launched into Israel.
A statement said Defense Minister Yoav Galant “completed a situation assessment with senior officials in Israel’s defense establishment”, after which he instructed to “prepare all possible responses to recent events”.
