Israel launched rare strikes in southern Lebanon early Friday and pressed on with bombing targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from Gaza on Leil HaSeder and the launching of 34 rockets from Lebanon on the first day of Pesach.

Another 44 rockets were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday, with a new salvo fired early Friday morning. Sirens blared in Ashkelon, Sderot, Ibim, Yated, Nir Am, Gavim, Sapir, Nachal Oz, Alumim, and Mefalsim.

An apartment in a building in Sderot sustained a direct hit by shrapnel but B’Chasdei Hashem, the residents of the apartment, a mother and a daughter, had run to the safe room and were uninjured. A number of people were treated for shock.

The IDF has instructed the residents of the south to stay close to bomb shelters as further rocket attacks are expected.

Friday’s strikes in southern Lebanon came a day after terrorists fired nearly three dozen rockets from there at Israel, wounding two people and causing some property damage. The Israeli military said it targeted installations of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group, in southern Lebanon.

Israeli strikes in Lebanon risk drawing Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group into the fighting. The Iran-backed group, armed with thousands of rockets and missiles, holds sway over much of southern Lebanon.

In recent years, Hezbollah has stayed out of other flareups related to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which stands on a hilltop revered by Muslims and Jews. The Israeli military was careful to note in its announcement about Friday’s attack that it was targeting only sites linked to Palestinian terrorists.

The head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro, said he was in contact with Israeli and Lebanese authorities early Friday. The force, known as UNIFIL, said that both sides have said they do not want war.

Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes on Gaza resumed early Friday, after terroristss fired more rockets from the blockaded territory, setting off air raid sirens in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. The military said targets included the entry shaft to an underground network used for weapons manufacturing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Security Cabinet for a three-hour meeting late Thursday. “Israel’s response, tonight and beyond, will extract a heavy price from our enemies,” he said in a statement after the meeting.

Almost immediately, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza began firing rockets into southern Israel, setting off air raid sirens across the region. Loud explosions could be heard in Gaza from the Israeli strikes, as outgoing rockets whooshed into the skies toward Israel. For now, Palestinian terrorists have fired only short-range rockets from Gaza, rather than the long-range projectiles that can reach as far as Tel Aviv and typically invite harsher Israeli retaliation.

The Israeli military said the rocket fire on its northern and southern fronts was carried out by Palestinian terrorists in connection to this week’s violence at Al-Aqsa where Israeli police stormed into the building with tear gas and stun grenades to confront Palestinians barricaded inside on two straight days. The violent scenes from the mosque ratcheted up tensions across the region.

In a briefing with reporters, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army drew a clear connection between the Lebanese rocket fire and the recent unrest in Jerusalem.

“It’s a Palestinian-oriented event,” he said, adding that either the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militant groups, which are based in Gaza but also operate in Lebanon, could be involved. But he said the army believed that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government were aware of what happened and also held responsibility.

The mosque — the third-holiest site in Islam — stands on a hilltop revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. The competing claims to the site have repeatedly spilled over into violence over the years.

No faction in Lebanon claimed responsibility for the salvo of rockets. A Lebanese security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, said the country’s security forces believed the rockets were launched by a Lebanon-based Palestinian militant group, not by Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the firing of rockets from Lebanon, adding that Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers were investigating and trying to find the perpetrators. Mikati said his government “categorically rejects any military escalation” and the use of Lebanese territories to stage acts that threaten stability.

Hezbollah has condemned the Israeli police raids in Jerusalem. Both Israel and Hezbollah have avoided an all-out conflict since a 34-day war in 2006 ended in a draw.

In Washington, the principal deputy State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, said, “Israel has legitimate security concerns and has every right to defend themselves.”

But he also urged calm in Jerusalem, saying that “any unilateral action that jeopardizes the status quo to us is unacceptable,” he said.

In Jerusalem, the situation remained tense at Al-Aqsa. For the previous two nights, Palestinians barricaded themselves in the mosque with stones and firecrackers.

Worshippers have been demanding the right to pray overnight inside the mosque — which authorities typically only permit during the last 10 days of the monthlong Ramadan holiday. They also have stayed in the mosque in protest over threats by religious Jews to carry out a ritual animal slaughter at the sacred site for Passover.

Israel did not try to prevent people from spending the night in the mosque early Friday — apparently because it was the weekend, when Jews do not visit the compound. But tensions could re-ignite Sunday when Jewish visits resume.

(YWN Israel Desk is keeping you updated on the first day of Chol Hamoed from Jerusalem.)

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)