Residents of northern Israeli communities spent Wednesday night in shelters and protected rooms as Hezbollah fighters fired dozens of mortars and Katyusha rockets at Israeli army positions in the southern Lebanon security zone.
Shells landed near the Israeli-Lebanese border overnight, but none landed inside Israeli territory, according to Israeli military sources.
No one was hurt and no damage was caused by the shelling.
Though the shells did not strike Israeli communities, Israeli army sources stressed that the level of tension had increased along the border.
The head of the northern command, Maj. Gen. Amiram Levine, warned Hezbollah that it should not misinterpret Israel’s restraint in the face of the latest attack.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had fired dozens of rockets at Israeli positions as part of an escalation of activities against the Israel Defense Force after the killing of five Hezbollah fighters in a clash with Israeli soldiers earlier this week.
In southern Lebanon, meanwhile, a woman and her two children were reported to have been killed by a roadside bomb in the eastern sector of the security zone.
In another incident, a Lebanese man was killed and five others wounded when the Israel-allied South Lebanon Army shelled targets north of the security zone.
The shelling came in the wake of the killing of an SLA fighter by a Hezbollah bomb that had been planted in his car.
In another development, a Lebanese military court sentenced 87 Lebanese men to 15 years of hard labor Thursday on charges of collaborating with Israel.
All of the sentences were issued in absentia to residents of the security zone. SLA officers were among those receiving the sentence.
In a separate incident, five U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon were killed Wednesday night when their helicopter crashed in the security zone.
The peacekeepers were identified as four Italians and one Irishman.
Witnesses said they saw an explosion before the helicopter crashed.
U.N. officials said Thursday they had no evidence of foul play in the crash.
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