WarSclerotic

The Israeli Air Force struck a “terrorist” target near Beirut in South Lebanon early on Friday morning, the IDF said in a statement.

The airstrike was carried out in response to four rockets being fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Thursday.

“Yesterday’s attack is a blatant breach on Israeli sovereignty that jeopardized Israeli civilian life. Israel will not tolerate terrorist aggression originating from Lebanese territory,” the IDF said.

According to the statement, the Israeli air strike was hit the target accurately and announced that all of the pilots involved in the mission returned to Israel safely.

A Palestinian militant group in Lebanon said one of its bases south of Beirut was the target hit by the IAF, but said it caused no injuries or significant damage, Hezbollah-affiliated TV network Al-Manar reported.

The station quoted a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command as saying the group’s base in Na’ameh was attacked. The spokesman said the PFLP-GC was surprised it was targeted because the earlier rocket fire was claimed by a separate al-Qaida-linked Sunni Muslim group.

A Lebanese security source confirmed that a rocket hit an area near Na’ameh, south of the Lebanese capital Beirut, near a network of tunnels used by the PFLP-GC in hills overlooking the Mediterranean coast. He said the rocket caused a 5-meter (16-foot) crater, but no casualties.

Israel said it holds the Lebanese government responsible for the rocket fire that occurred on Thursday, even though a Sunni group called the Abdallah al-Azzam Brigades claimed responsibility for the rockets earlier on Thursday.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has denied involvement with Thursday’s rocket attack, saying, “the firing of rockets towards Israel is a violation of the UN-regulated ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon,” Army Radio reported on Thursday.

After four rockets struck Israeli soil on Thursday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed to hit back at anyone who threatened Israeli citizens.

“We are deploying a wide range of means,” he said in a statement, “both defensive and preventative. We are acting responsibly. Anyone who attacks us, or tries to attack us, should know that we will get him.”

The rocket attacks hit two Israeli settlements but there were no injuries or casualties.

Reuters contributed to this report.