Smoke rises from Taibeh, Lebanon, after an Israeli strike on Saturday. The Israeli military and U.N. peacekeepers said rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel earlier. (Karamallah Daher/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Israel launched strikes on southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least two, in response to rockets fired from across the border earlier in the day. The exchange was the largest since the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect late last year.
U.N. peacekeepers said four projectiles were launched from Lebanon into Israel near Metula at around 7:30 a.m. Saturday. Israel said six were fired and three entered Israel, where they were intercepted.
The Israel Defense Forces responded with strikes targeting “dozens of Hezbollah rocket launchers and a command center,” it said.
“We will not allow a reality in which rockets are fired from Lebanon at the communities of the Galilee,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said. “We promised security to the residents of the Galilee — and that is exactly what will be. … I have instructed the IDF to respond accordingly.”
Two people, including a child, were killed, and 10 were wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group and political party, denied firing the rockets, which it said were “merely pretexts” for “continued attacks on Lebanon, which have not ceased since the ceasefire was announced.”
After the launches, the Lebanese army said, it dismantled three primitive rocket launchers in Nabatieh in a “search and inspection operation.” It did not identify who controlled them.
The IDF said the rocket fire “constitutes a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and is a direct threat to the citizens of the State of Israel.”
“The State of Lebanon bears responsibility for upholding the agreement,” the IDF said on Telegram.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned “attempts to drag Lebanon back into a cycle of violence,” Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. He said he considered the exchange part of a “failure to adhere to the details of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israel agreed to fully withdraw its troops occupying southern Lebanon, but it said last month they would remain past a mid-February deadline.
UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said it was “alarmed by the possible escalation of violence.”
“We strongly urge all parties to avoid jeopardizing the progress made, especially when civilian lives and the fragile stability observed in recent months are at risk,” UNIFIL said. It warned that further escalation could risk “serious consequences for the region.”
The ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States and France paused the war between Israel and Hezbollah that killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.
Bisset reported from London. Rom reported from Tel Aviv.