On Thursday morning, Israeli warplanes bombed sites in southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006, and Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that Israel had escalatory intentions.

The new Israeli shelling came early this morning on what the army said were missile launch sites in southern Lebanon in response to the firing of two missiles from Lebanese territory towards Israel, in an escalation of cross-border hostilities amid increasing tension with Iran.

Yesterday, the two missiles fell on an empty area in northern Israel, causing fires in forests in the border area.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which was launched from southern Lebanon.

The army said that Israel responded with several bursts of artillery fire yesterday, before launching air strikes this morning.

"Fighter planes struck launch sites and infrastructure used for terrorism in Lebanon, from which missiles were launched," he said in a statement.

He added that he also bombed an area from which rockets had been launched in the past.


The Lebanese president said today that the air strikes launched by Israel during the night, the first since 2006, showed "the presence of escalatory aggressive intentions" towards Lebanon.

Aoun added - in a tweet on Twitter - that the strikes were "a flagrant and dangerous violation of Security Council Resolution 1701 and a direct threat to security and stability in southern Lebanon."

For his part, the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit a complaint to the UN Security Council regarding the recent Israeli bombing that targeted Lebanese territory.

Diab said in a statement that this bombing constitutes a threat to calm on the southern border of Lebanon.

He added that it comes in light of repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty, and the use of Lebanon's airspace to bomb Syrian territory.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said, "The Israeli enemy planes carried out two raids targeting the Al-Dimashqieh area in the outskirts of the town of Mahmudiyah in southern Lebanon."

There were no reports of deaths or injuries.

The Israeli bombing of Lebanon violates the rules of engagement (Al-Jazeera)

For his part, the director of Al Jazeera's office in Lebanon, Mazen Ibrahim, said that the new Israeli bombing, with a depth of more than 20 kilometers inside Lebanese territory, violated the rules of engagement and the understandings of the July 2006 war, which stipulated that Israel should not bomb deep into Lebanon, and that Hezbollah would not respond with precision-guided missiles. And inside the Israeli depth.

He also mentioned that there are questions about how Hezbollah will deal with the two Israeli raids, and that there is anticipation of a speech that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah will deliver next Saturday, which is expected to address the new escalation.

For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Ynet TV, "This is an attack aimed at sending a message...We can certainly do a lot and hopefully we won't get there."

Gantz said he believed a Palestinian faction fired the two rockets.

And in the past, small Palestinian factions in Lebanon have launched missiles at Israel.

The border incidents followed a suspected drone attack on a tanker off the Omani coast last Thursday, which Israel, the United States and Britain have blamed on Iran.

Two British and Romanian crew members were killed in the incident, and Iran denied any connection to the attack.

The United States and Britain indicated on Sunday that they would work with their allies to respond to the attack.

Israel said it reserves the right to respond unilaterally if necessary.