The Israeli police attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last Wednesday has generated a new escalation of tension between Israel and Lebanon, two countries that technically remain in a state of war after several conflicts.
The Israeli army has confirmed the launch from Lebanon of at least 34 rockets on Israeli territory. This attack would be the largest since 2006, when the two nations waged war.
According to Israel, five rockets hit the country, 25 were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system and the remaining four are being examined, a military spokesman said.
The projectiles, whose launch has not been officially attributed to any group, have caused at least one injury by shrapnel in northern Israel, where alarms sounded in several towns in the Galilee region.
The Israeli Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service reported that a 19-year-old boy suffered a hand injury from shrapnel, while a woman in her 60s was injured in the leg after falling on the road. to the bomb shelter.
On the other hand, Israeli media indicated that a second young man, 26, was also hit by shrapnel while riding a motorcycle near the border community of Shlomi.
One of the recorded impacts took place in that community, in the vicinity of a commercial area, where several stores were hit by shrapnel.
The launch of about thirty rockets represents the largest attack from Lebanon since the 2006 war, which Israel waged with the powerful Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah - an ally of Iran -, although the media point to the Palestinian militias operating in southern Lebanon as those responsible for the projectiles this Thursday.
These militias, based in refugee camps in southern Lebanon, launch rockets into Israel at times of tension, the last time a year ago, in April 2022, also coinciding with the police charges at the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem in full Ramadan.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility in August 2021 - for the first and only time since 2006 - for the launch of a batch of 19 rockets after several Israeli bombardments in response to several days of rocket fire by those Palestinian militias, although security sources take it for granted. that the Shiite group controls everything that happens in southern Lebanon.
The launch from Lebanon follows two days of tensions between Israel and Palestinian militias in Gaza, which fired seven surface-to-air rockets this morning - apparently aimed at an Israeli air force plane - two more last night and more than a dozen the Wednesday morning.
Israel responded yesterday with a bombing attack on Hamas military targets in the strip, but has not responded to the latest rockets from either Gaza or Lebanon, something unusual.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has called an emergency meeting with his Security Cabinet and the Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, will also meet with the military leadership after being informed by the Chief of Staff of the situation in the border.
This escalation of violence comes after two consecutive nights of Israeli police charges inside the holy Al Aqsa Mosque against Muslim worshipers, which left more than 30 Palestinians injured and some 350 detained.
