News Service from House Harris

MID: Rockets hit northern Israel from Lebanon

JERUSALEM, Jan 8 AFP - Several rockets fired from Lebanon slammed into northern Israel with the army returning fire, as the Jewish state entered the 13th day of a massive offensive on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"Three rockets landed in Israel fired from Lebanon," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, adding that two people were slightly wounded in the area around the northern town of Nahariya on Thursday.

"We carried out direct fire at the source of the rocket fire from Lebanon," an army spokeswoman said.

A Lebanese army spokesman said: "Between two and three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon. Israel has retaliated with five or six rockets."

The rockets fell a day after the chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Shi'ite militia with which Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006, warned "all possibilities" were open against Israel amid its deadly offensive in Gaza.

A Hezbollah spokesman had "no immediate confirmation" on the strike and Haidar Dokmak, a Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon, would only say: "We are verifying the report."

The last time rockets from Lebanon hit northern Israel was on June 17, 2007 slamming into the northern town of Kiryat Shmona causing minor damage and no injuries.

At the time, Hezbollah denied responsibility and Israel also said Hezbollah was not involved in the attack and blamed it on an unnamed Palestinian group.

Israeli media cited unnamed military sources saying Thursday's attack was likely to have also come from Palestinian groups firing in retaliation of Israel's deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Officials from the Lebanese chapters of the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, denied their groups were responsible for Thursday's fire.

Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, Raafat Morra, said his movement was not responsible for the rockets incident.

"Hamas is pursuing its combat inside Palestine and our principle is not to use any other Arab soil to respond to the occupation," Hamas spokesman Raafat Morra said in Lebanon.

Fatah official Munir Makdah said: "I doubt that this is the work of any Palestinian faction, the Palestinians are committed not to use Lebanon as a front and our weapons are under the authority of the Lebanese."

Residents of southern Lebanon began to leave the area after the early morning fire.

"The residents are starting to flee. There is panic in the area," said resident Fathi Badawi.

Israel and Hezbollah militia fought a 34-day war in 2006, after guerrillas from the Lebanese Shi'ite movement seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.

The war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. During the conflict, Hezbollah sent more than 4,000 rockets into northern Israel.

Israel is currently in the 13th day of a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah carried out its deadly raid in 2006 two weeks into Israel's last major operation in Gaza, which was in turn launched after Gaza militants seized another Israeli soldier in a raid near the Palestinian territory.

In his address on Wednesday, Nasrallah said: "We have to act as though all possibilities are real and open (against Israel) and we must always be ready for any eventuality."

His comment marked the first time he has spoken so openly on the possibility of a renewed conflict with Israel since the war in Gaza began on December 27.

Israel's offensive on Gaza, launched in response to consistent rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, has sparked widespread anger in the Muslim world amid a mounting civilian death toll.

The war has killed more than 700 Palestinians, including 220 children, and wounded more than 3,100 people.