The Israeli military is reporting that three rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon, exploding in the Western Galilee, and that soldiers were searching for any signs of any un-detonated rockets or undetected targets, according to Yahoo!
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According to Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, the rockets were fired from southern Lebanon in retaliation for the killing in Syria late Saturday of a senior Hezbollah commander by an airstrike for which the group has blamed Israel.
Jailed in Israel for his part in a 1979 raid in Israel that killed four people, Kuntar, a Druze, was repatriated to Lebanon in 2008 in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, which he is then believed to have joined.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al Zubi said the authorities were investigating the attack but pointed the finger towards Israel, though he fell short of blaming it.
A high-profile member of the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah, who had spent years in Israeli prisons, has been killed in Syria in a suspected Israeli air strike, according to Hezbollah.
He killed a policeman and kidnapped and killed a man, Danny Haran, and his four-year-old daughter, after they crossed into the northern coastal town of Nahariya by sea from Lebanon. The child’s mother, who took refuge in a crawlspace, accidentally smothered her other daughter trying to silence her cries, Israel has said.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael Halaqi condemned the attack, saying targeting Kantar was equivalent to “targeting the axis of resistance”, referring to Syria and its allies.
Israel had accused Kuntar of organizing armed groups in Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Ammar said the group’s military arm would determine the timing and methods chosen “to punish the killers, specifically the Israeli enemy”.
On the other side, Israelis have expressed relief over the news.
Israel said it responded with artillery fire into Lebanon, where the state-run National News Agency said nine shells hit locations in the country’s south.
Isaac Herzog, head of Israel’s opposition Labor Party, described Kuntar’s assassination as a “historical justice”, which, he said, would serve to enhance regional security.
Although Mr. Kuntar received a 542-year life sentence for the attack, he was released in 2008 in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah in 2006.
Israel held Kantar responsible for spearheading a Hezbollah effort to open up a new battle front against it from the Syrian-held area of the Golan Heights.
But the recent airstrike has some anxious that the airstrike may prompt another war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israeli military sources told AFP that one rocket crashed into the Galilee region and the impact of another was heard.
Israel and Russia have set up a communications channel to make sure their air forces do not clash with each other, though it was not known whether the alleged Israeli strike on Kantar had been announced to the Russians ahead of time.
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Israeli officials refused to either confirm or deny they were behind the attack.
