Home NewsRockets 'from Lebanon' fired into Israel
At least three rockets have been fired into Israel from Lebanon, it has been claimed.
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 9:09AM GMT 08 Jan 2009
Previous1 of 5 ImagesNext Palestinians walk in the rubble of a building following an Israeli airstrike in the Rafah refugee camp Photo: AP
A Palestinian man carries an injured girl into Shifa hospital in Gaza City Photo: AP
An Israeli soldier prays next to an army vehicle near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip Photo: AP
Photo: AFP/Getty
Israeli strike on UN-run school in Gaza kills 30 Photo: REUTERS
Lebanese security sources said three to five rockets had been fired into northern Israel.
Israeli warplanes responded to the strike within minutes by bombing the suspected launch sites.
There were unconfirmed reports that five Israelis had been injured in the blasts. Experts said at least three katyusha rockets landed in Israel.
The attack raised fears of the Gaza conflict spreading across the region and the very dramatic prospect of a northern front being opened up in Israel while its armed forces are still heavily engaged in the south of the country on operation Cast Lead, the assault on Gaza.
Katyushas have been fired into Israel by Hizbollah, the militant Shia group in southern Lebanon, and militants connected to the large Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon.
Israeli planners were this morning anxiously trying to work out who might have been responsible for the katyusha strikes.
Two weeks ago Lebanese security forces said they had found rockets in the south of the country aimed at Israel and set to be fired by automatic timer.
The assessment then was they were the work of Palestinian militants and not Hizbollah.
If Hizbollah does start an assault on Israel in support of Hamas militants in Gaza then the level of conflict seen over the last 13 days since operation Case Lead began could escalate dramatically.
Heavy Israeli airstrikes on Hizbollah positions in southern Lebanon could be expected.
Israel and Hizbollah fought a brutal 34-day conflict in 2006 which killed around 1,000 Lebanese and 140 Israelis.
As Israeli experts tried to assess the developments in the north the Israeli air force carried out heavy overnight bombing of Gaza’s southern border with Egypt hoping to disrupt the smuggling tunnels dug in the sandy soil.The Egyptian border at the town of Rafah has become the focus of diplomatic attempts to end the Gaza conflict.
After hitting Hamas hard for 13 days Israel wants to make sure any ceasefire agreement includes an internationally monitored border arrangement at Rafah capable of stopping arms smuggling into Gaza.
It was the detail of the border arrangement that Israel was focussing on this morning after indicating it accepted the principles of a ceasefire plan proposed jointly by Egypt and France.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, has sent a senior envoy, Amos Gilad, to Cairo today to scrutinise the plan in detail.
Omar Suleiman, the powerful Egyptian intelligence chief, is believed to have persuaded representatives of the Hamas leadership to provisionally accept the plan.
Israel is buoyed by what it sees as a successful military assault on Hamas members and infrastructure in Gaza and wants to make sure any ceasefire contains two key elements.
These are an arms embargo on Hamas, meaning international monitors on Gaza’s Egyptian border to stop smuggling, and a complete end to the firing of rockets at Israel from Gaza.
The diplomatic effort raised hopes for Gaza’s 1.5 million population of an end to the punishing raids by Israeli forces that have left 688 confirmed dead of whom more than half were civilians including 130 children.
A three-hour lull in fighting yesterday saw many Gazans emerge from their homes for the first time in days seeking supplies of food and water.
The lull was offered by Israel as a ``humanitarian window’’ although it was not long enough to allow significant distribution of humanitarian aid.
Palestinian ambulances were able to reach wounded who had been trapped in places too dangerous to reach, in some cases for days.
In the suburb of Zeitoun an ambulance crew member said he saw ``about 70’’ bodies around the compound of the Samouni family before Israeli soldiers drove off the ambulances with warning shots.
As revealed by The Telegraph yesterday the attack on the home of Wael Samouni is believed to be the bloodiest single incident of the conflict with Israel shelling a house its army knew to be crowded with around 100 civilians.
The lull was initiated by Israel but Palestinian militants followed suit with a pause in the firing of rockets out of Gaza into the jewish state although when the three hours had passed both sides started firing again.
Aware of growing international distress at the civilian suffering inside Gaza Israel has offered to repeat the three-hour lull today.
Aid workers said three hours was too short to make a significant difference to the plight of Gaza’s civilian population.
John Ging, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said ``it still left 23 hours of terror’’ for the civilian population of Gaza.
While the three hour lull in fighting was observed by both sides yesterday when it expired at 4pm local time two explosions, believed to be Israeli air strikes, were heard inside Gaza.
