Israel Responds With Artillery After Rockets Launched From Southern Lebanon

The Israeli army fired artillery shells into southern Lebanon Tuesday morning, targeting the source of rocket fire after two rockets were launched from Lebanon’s Wadi Hamoul region into Israel. Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepted one of the rockets; the other fell in an open area near Israel’s Mediterranean coast, according to the Israeli military. No injuries were reported. Israel’s military believes that a Palestinian group in southern Lebanon fired the rockets. This was the first exchange of fire between Israel and forces in Lebanon since May, when Palestinians launched rockets from Lebanon while Israel and Hamas traded rocket fire and airstrikes in and around the Gaza Strip. “We will not allow the social, political and economic crisis in Lebanon to turn into a security threat to Israel,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement, referring to an economic meltdown in Lebanon that the World Bank has called “one of the world’s worst financial crises since the 1850s.” Overnight, Israel carried out airstrikes near Aleppo, in northern Syria, targeting weapons depots belonging to Iran-backed militias in the area, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.