Confusion over rockets launched from Lebanon into Israel

Azerbaijan News.Net
Thursday 8th January, 2009

At least three rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday.

On the 13th day of the Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the rockets were shot into the town of Nahariya, south of the Lebanese border.

The Israeli army says it returned artillary fire into Lebanon, but not before an Israeli citizen was injured by the rocket fire.

According to assessments in the Israeli army's Northern Command, the salvo was probably fired by Palestinian militant groups and not by Hezbollah.

"Even if it was a Palestinian group who fired the rockets, Hezbollah would have to at least have turned a blind eye to allow the rocket fire," a defense official told The Jerusalem Post.

A Lebanon government official said his country was trying to establish who fired the rockets. The official said Lebanon is committed to a UN-brokered truce that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

The Lebanon army issued a statement saying the rockets were launched by an "unknown group" and it was investigating the incident.

An al-Jazeera reporter with close ties to Hezbollah told Israel's Channel 10 there was no chance the rockets were fired by the Shi'ite terror group, because the rockets were of an outdated model that Hezbollah had not used for years. He said if Hezbollah had wanted to open a new front in the current conlict it would have fired dozens of rockets and not just 3.

The Israeli government said regardless of who fired the records it was holding the Lebanese government and army responsible. "Israel holds the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese armed forces responsible for preventing rocket fire into Israel," a government statement said.

Meanwhile, Israel intensified its air strikes on Gaza Thursday and deepened its ground offensive.

Analysts were saying the Israeli army was wanting to inflict as much damage as it could before a ceasefire currently being discussed came into effect.

In Gaza, Israeli warplanes and helicopters carried out new strikes on what the army described as suspected arms-smuggling tunnels in the town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border. Israeli air strikes were also reported in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli army said it hit sixty sites including a mosque used as a weapons storage facility, a police building, smuggling tunnels, a number of armed operatives "that were prepared to fire at Israeli forces," launching sites and underground launching pads used to fire mortar shells.

Diplomatic efforts to end the fighting continued. Israeli officials say they view the Egyptian-French proposal for a ceasefire positively, and sent a negotiator to Cairo on Thursday morning to participate in talks on the proposal.

Hamas says it is also studying the plan.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed Washington's support for the ceasefire initiative and said she talked about the plan with Israel.

Rice also said she and the foreign ministers of Britain and France met with Arab League diplomats at the United Nations Wednesday to discuss a ceasefire resolution.

The Security Council remains split over two possible responses to halt Israel's incursion into Gaza, which aims to stop Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel.

One is a legally binding U.N. resolution drafted by Libya, demanding an immediate and permanent cease-fire and the lifting of Israel's blockade on Gaza.

The other is a non-binding statement, proposed by the United States, Britain and France that requires arrangements and guarantees, including preventing the smuggling of weapons to Hamas and the re-opening of border crossings.

Palestinian medics estimate that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, while at least ten people have died on the Israeli side, including 7 soldiers.

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