Dozens of missiles were launched from Thursday Lebanon to Israel which they attribute to Palestinian groups, in a spiral of violence unleashed on Wednesday by the Israeli police invasion of Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque.

Rockets caused at least one injury in Israelsaid rescue services.

That’s what the Hebrew army reported 34 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel, of which 25 were intercepted by flak. At least five fell on their territory.

“We will hit our enemies and make them pay the price for any aggression,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the opening of a cabinet meeting with limited security measures held after the attack.

Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war after several conflicts and the border between the two is guarded by the United Nations Interim Force (FINUL), which aims to guarantee the ceasefire.

A spokesman for the Israeli army said: rockets were Palestinians.

“It could be him [movimiento islamista palestino] Hamas could be Islamic Jihad. We are still trying to come to a final conclusion, but it was not the Lebanese Hezbollah,” said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht.

The last rocket fire from Lebanon towards Israel dates back to April 2022but Thursday’s incident represents the biggest escalation since the 2006 war against the powerful Lebanese Hezbollah.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks at this time, and the Lebanese army said it had dismantled missile launch pads in the south of its territory.

Before the attack, alarm sirens sounded in the towns of Shlomi and Moshav Betzet, as well as in the Galilee region of northern Israel.

The episode came at a time of heightened tensions following Wednesday’s violent police intervention at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque, which police said left 350 detainees behind.

The holy site is located on the Esplanade of the Mosques, the third holy site in Islam and in turn is located in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the city occupied by Israel after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and annexed.

“Prevent further escalation”

The Lebanese National Information Agency noted that the Israeli artillery fired “several shells from their positions on the border” at two towns in southern Lebanon.

That has been specified by the agency, which has not reported the victims the shelling came in response to the firing of “several Katyusha-style missiles” at Israel.

For his part, an Israeli military spokesman denied these reports, saying the armed forces have not responded “so far”.

The United States condemned the rocket fire, saying Israel had a “legitimate right” to defend itself. This was reported by spokesman Vedant Patel of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, asked that in turn “all actors” the “maximum moderation”.

On their side, UNIFIL in Lebanon called for containment: “The current situation is extremely serious. UNIFIL is urging containment to prevent further escalation,” he said.

In Fassuta, a city in northern Israel, an AFP journalist saw the remains of a rocket on a road. In Shlomi, another AFP team saw shops damaged by a rocket blast hitting the road. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been briefed on the details of what happened at the northern border, a ministry spokesman said.

Fighting on the esplanade

Israel faced international condemnation after police forcibly evicted Palestinian worshipers from Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque early Wednesday.

The intervention that left 37 wounded according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, this led to an escalation of rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli shelling. The incident also occurred during the celebration of the Jewish Passover and the Islamic month of Ramadan.

The leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Ismail Haniya, assured Thursday that “they will not stand idly by” in the face of Israeli “aggression”. In turn, the pro-Iranian group Hezbollah warned it would support it “all measures” taken by Palestinian organizations against Israel after the clashes.

“Hezbollah strongly condemns the attack by the Israeli occupation forces on the esplanade of the Al Aqsa Mosque and its attacks on the worshipers,” the Shiite formation said in a statement Thursday.

Hezbollah, a sworn enemy of Israel, has good relations with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.