Israeli PM Netanyahu: 'Enemies will pay for acts of aggression'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would act assertively in response to a volley of rocket attacks on Israel on Thursday.
"We will strike our enemies and they will pay the price for any act of aggression," Netanyahu said in a televised address.
Israel blamed the Islamist group Hamas for a volley of more than 30 rockets fired from Lebanon on Thursday, following escalating tensions after Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem this week.
The Israeli military said 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon, of which 25 were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system. Israel's ambulance service said one man had sustained minor shrapnel injuries.
The incident came as Israel faced worldwide pressure following police raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which this year coincides with the Jewish Passover holiday that started on Wednesday evening.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but an Israeli military spokesman placed the blame on Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip. "The party that fired the rockets from Lebanon is Hamas in Lebanon," the spokesman said in a tweet.
Three non-Israeli security sources also said Palestinian factions in Lebanon, not Hezbollah, were believed to be responsible for the rocket fire although it was widely assumed that Hezbollah would have to have given its permission.
Israel's PM Netanyahu, defence chief discuss rockets fired from Lebanon
Israel's Prime Minister and Defence chief Yoav Gallant held meetings with military officials to discuss a rocket attack from Lebanon on Thursday.
Netanyahu was also set to hold a meeting of the security cabinet to decide a response to the attack, the biggest rocket attack from Lebanon since 2006, when Israel fought a war with the heavily armed Hezbollah movement.
Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh was visiting Lebanon but there was no immediate comment from the group.
There was also no immediate comment from the Lebanese military or Hezbollah.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon, which have a presence in the refugee camps, have fired sporadically on Israel in the past. But the border has been largely quiet since the 2006 war with Hezbollah, which has sway in southern Lebanon and commands an arsenal of advanced rockets.
Following the strikes on Thursday, TV footage showed rocket debris hit a vehicle in the Arab village of Fassuta in the north of Israel. The driver was lightly injured in the incident.
The rocket fire adds a further complication for the religious-nationalist government of Netanyahu, who before the violence this week at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque had faced mass protests against his proposals to rein in the Supreme Court.
Netanyahu last week delayed the bitterly contested judicial overhaul plans, which caused the biggest domestic political crisis seen in Israel in at least two decades.
US "concerned" by scenes of violence in Jerusalem, condemns rocket strikes from Lebanon
The US is "concerned" by the scenes of violence out of Jerusalem, State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Thursday, adding that the administration is in regular touch with Israeli partners and the Palestinian authority.
In the daily State Department briefing, Patel said that the United States condemned the rocket strikes from Lebanon, and added that "Israel has legitimate security concerns and that it has every right to defend itself from these legitimate security concerns."
Gaza launches rockets, streets empty following Israeli airstrikes
Retaliatory salvoes of rockets were fired in Gaza early on Friday (April 7), after powerful Israeli airstrikes rocked the blockaded coastal enclave.
Streets in Gaza City were empty, despite the religious Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr being weeks away.
Shop worker Sami Abu Karsh hoped tensions between Gaza and Israel would not escalate. "Many people depend on Ramadan and the holiday season (to earn a livelihood). I hope there will not be a war," he told Reuters.
Israeli jets had hit sites across Gaza earlier on Friday, in retaliation for a volley of rockets fired from Lebanon, as tensions following police raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem this week threatened to spiral out of control.
