Jerusalem, September 14: A militant group, professing links to al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for firing rockets into northern Israel.
“Your brothers fired two Katyusha rockets from South Lebanon which landed in the Naharia settlement in the North of occupied Palestine,” a statement on web sites used by militants said.
The statement was signed by the Ziad al-Jarrah division of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.
The militant group also cited Israel’s blockade of Gaza along with its preventing worshippers from praying at the Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as the reasons for the action.
Israel retaliated to the rocket attack by firing at least a dozen shells into an area of fruit plantations from where the rockets were allegedly fired, Lebanese officials said.
The attack was condemned by the United Nations Secretary General Bank ki-Moon who called on all sides to exhibit restraint.
The incident has left no one injured in either Israel or Lebanon.
—–Agencies