Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon fired more than 60 Katyusha rockets and mortar bombs into northern Israel and the Israeli-controlled south Lebanon security zone, but no casualties and only minor damage resulted from the weekend barrage.
Israeli forces and their allies, the South Lebanon Army, responded with a helicopter gunship attack on enemy rocket launcher sites and an intermittent artillery attack.
Army and government sources said their response to Hezbollah was restrained, because they did not want to escalate the tense situation. Hezbollah attacks have been stepped up during the last two weeks.
The series of Katyusha firings followed an attack last Friday by Israeli helicopters in which a one-story house used by Hezbollah members was destroyed. The house was vacant at the time.
Earlier on Friday, three SLA soldiers were wounded in an ambush by unidentified terrorists. In response, SLA gunners shelled the terrain north of the security zone. Hezbollah attacks continued Friday night and Saturday.
A tragedy was averted in the border kibbutz early Saturday when one of two Katyusha rockets shot at the kibbutz area was knocked off its path when it hit a tall eucalyptus tree near a school building being used by a group of students on an outing.
The blast awakened the youngsters but caused no damage to the building. Several farm vehicles were damaged and building windows broken.
All in all, some 60 rockets were fired from launchers north of the security zone from the vicinity of Yater, a Hezbollah stronghold. Some 24 landed in Israel’s Galilee border and panhandle areas, while another 40 landed in the southern Lebanon security zone.
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