Israeli shells southern Lebanon, escalating military tension

Israel shelled Lebanon on Tuesday in response to rocket attacks, the Israeli Army said, as the UN urged all sides to show “maximum restraint.”

The UN peacekeeping force in the border region, UNIFIL, said it had boosted security in the area and “launched an investigation” with the Lebanese military.

No party claimed responsibility for the two 122mm Grad rockets fired at dawn on Tuesday from the Qlaileh plain, south of the city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese Army announced that three bases for launching the rockets were found in the vicinity of Qlaileh.

It said a ready-to-fire rocket found on one of the bases was disabled by a specialized unit.

A similar security incident occurred in May when unknown individuals fired Grad-type rockets from the same area towards Israel, against the backdrop of the

bombing of the Gaza Strip.

“The warning sirens sounded in the region of Western Galilee after the two rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel,” Israeli Army spokesman Avichay Adraee announced on Tuesday.

Adraee said one was intercepted and the second fell in an open area.

According to the Lebanese Army Command, Israel responded “less than half an hour later with 12 155-caliber artillery shells, targeting the Wadi Hamul area in the Bint Jbeil district,” which borders the Occupied Territories. No casualties or damage were reported.

The Commander of the South Litani Sector in the Lebanese Army Brig. Gen. Maroun Al-Qubayati and other senior officers inspected the rocket firing site in the Qlaileh plain.

They were briefed about the process of dismantling the bases and the unfired rocket, which was moved elsewhere.