A rare rocket barrage from Lebanon yesterday deepened Israeli concern that al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants are opening a new front for confrontation with Israel.
The Israeli military said several rockets were fired from southern Lebanon, but that one was intercepted by an anti-missile shield and two or three others fell outside Israeli territory. However, Israeli security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least five rockets hit Israel.
Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said there were no casualties.
Southern Lebanon is a stronghold of the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group, which fought a war against Israel in 2006. But Israel blamed the attack on a “global jihadi organisation”, its term for al-Qaeda and Islamist militant offshoots.
In Syria, Sunni Muslim jihadi fighters are battling alongside rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by militants from Shi’ite Muslim Hizbollah.
A strike on Israel by jihadists would be a show of force just a day after opposition activists in Syria accused Assad’s loyalists of using chemical weapons to kill hundreds of people in a rebel-held Damascus suburb. The Syrian army denied the allegations.
Israeli leaders have said they fear al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria could eventually turn their sights on Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, or that Hizbollah might do so to deflect criticism from much of the Sunni Arab world for its potent support for Assad.
“Today’s rocket strike is directly connected to all of the events taking place in the Middle East,” said Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, yesterday.
“Global jihad is looking for areas in which there is anarchy and chaos. We see them in Sinai, we find them in the Golan Heights, we find them in Lebanon, too,” he said. “They exploit opportunities ... and sometimes they try to attack Israeli citizens.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commenting on yesterday’s strike, said in a statement that “anyone who tries to attack us should know that we will hurt them”.
Israel’s military, however, signalled it would not retaliate for now for the launchings that triggered warning sirens and sent residents in the north scrambling for shelter.