Israel shells Lebanon after rockets fired over border

PTI, Jul 20, 2021, 12:23 PM IST

Jerusalem: The Israeli military said its artillery shelled southern Lebanon early Tuesday after two rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

The army said in a statement that aerial defences intercepted one of the rockets, and the second fell in an open area. No injuries or damage were reported.

The rocket fired from Lebanon was the first cross-border fire since May when Palestinian militants launched rockets at Israel during the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

The incident came hours after a Syrian military official said Israel carried out airstrikes near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

The Syrian state news agency said air defences intercepted most of the missiles in the attack.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor that has activists on the ground in Syria, said the Israeli strikes targeted weapons depots belonging to Iranian-backed militant groups operating in the region.

Israel has carried out scores of airstrikes in Syria in recent years targeting Iranian forces there, and attacking what Israel says are weapons shipments bound for the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli military rarely comments on these strikes.