Israel Matzav

9/11 celebration, Hezbullah style

Hezbullah is celebrating 9/11 by firing Katyusha rockets at Israel on Friday. Two rockets have landed in open areas in the western Galilee, one of them near Nahariya in Israel's northwest corner (Hat Tip: Mere Rhetoric).

No casualties or damage were reported in the incident, which marked the fourth such attack this year.

IDF troops launched retaliatory artillery fire towards the source.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that one of the rockets was located near Nahariya, and the IDF said that the rockets were apparently 122 millimeters in diameter.

A senior Lebanese military official said that the rockets were fired from the town of Qlaileh, near the Lebanese port city of Tyre.

No group took immediate responsibility for the cross-border attack, though radical Palestinian factions in Lebanon have been suspected of firing rockets into Israel in the past.

'No group took immediate responsibility my ***.' Hezbullah either did it or allowed someone else to do it.

It is likely that Israel did not respond disproportionately because it has bigger fish to fry and has no desire to get involved in a tit for tat rocket war with its neighbor to the north. Look for Hezbullah to try to ratchet up tensions in the coming months, both to take advantage of Israel's attempts to wait for the Americans to come on board against Iran and to try to goad Israel into getting involved with an action that will waste resources it needs for more important battles.

It may be interesting to see whether this comes up in the US State Department briefing later today and what is said. It will already be the Sabbath here when that briefing takes place, so I won't be able to check, but if any of you hear anything interesting and want to send it to me, please drop me an email and I will look at it on Saturday night.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:21 PM