34 rockets fired at Israel from Lebanon

Militants fired a heavy barrage of rockets from Lebanon at Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, forcing people across Israel’s northern frontier into bomb shelters, wounding at least one person and ratcheting up regional tensions as Israelis celebrated the Jewish Passover holiday, Report informs via the Associated Press.

Israel’s military said 34 rockets had been fired across the border, and that 25 were shot down by its Iron Dome aerial defense system. Another five fell inside Israeli territory and the rest were being investigated, it added. The army said its response would come after “a situational assessment” and meeting by Israel’s Security Cabinet later Thursday.

The Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah holds power in much of southern Lebanon, a flashpoint with Israeli forces. Thursday’s rocket fire raised fears of a wider conflagration. Over the past two days, tensions have skyrocketed at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site and along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.

The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that there had been “multiple rocket launches from southern Lebanon toward Israel” and the Israeli army had informed UNIFIL that it activated its Iron Dome defense system in response.

“The current situation is extremely serious,” said Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, the head of the peacekeeping force, adding that he’s been in touch with both Lebanese and Israeli authorities. “UNIFIL urges restraint and to avoid further escalation.”

Earlier on Thursday and late Wednesday night, Palestinian militants in Gaza had fired rockets toward Israel in protest over an escalation at the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City.

No faction in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the salvo of rockets, which set off air raid sirens across the country’s north. Israeli media estimated it to be larger than previous launches from Lebanon in recent years.

Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said the rockets had been fired from the area of a Palestinian refugee camp — suggesting that the rockets had been fired at Israel by Palestinian militants based in Lebanon.