Three rockets launched at Israel from Lebanon, IDF says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Three rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Thursday, May 13 but landed in the Mediterranean Sea, causing no damage or casualties, the Israeli military said, France 24 reports.

The rocket firing threatened to open a new front in the escalating fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza.

The IDF gave no details of who fired them. But two sources close to Israel's arch-enemy Hezbollah told the AFP the Lebanese Shiite group had no link to the incident.

"A short while ago, three rockets were fired from Lebanon into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the Galilee," Israel's army said in a statement. "According to protocol no sirens were sounded".

There was no immediate comment from Beirut about the incident.

Israel fought a 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas, who have sway in southern Lebanon and advanced rockets. The border has been mostly quiet since then. Small Palestinian factions in Lebanon have fired sporadically on Israel in the past.

No sirens warned of the launch, something the military said was "according to protocol" -- an allusion to Israeli air defenses that ignore rockets set to hit unpopulated areas.