Lebanon Rockets Strike Israel As Death Toll In Gaza Surpasses 150

tag-reuters (2) — A Palestinian fire-fighter tries to extinguish a fire which police said was caused by an Israeli tank shelling in the industrial area in the east of Gaza City July 12, 2014. REUTERS/Ashraf Amrah

Israeli Tank — A convoy of Israeli lorries carrying army tanks can be seen on a road leading to southern Israel, at Latrun, near Jerusalem. July 12, 2014. Israel pounded Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday for a fifth day, killing nine people including two disabled women according to medics, and showed no sign of pausing despite international pressure to negotiate a ceasefire. In Israel, a Palestinian rocket seriously wounded one person and injured another seven when it hit a fuel tanker at a service station in Ashdod, 30 km (20 miles) north of Gaza. Islamist militants in Gaza warned they would launch rockets at Tel Aviv's main international airport and warned airlines to stay clear. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

The Israeli military confirmed Saturday evening it has launched a strike on Southern Lebanon after at least two rockets hit the Western Galilee town of Nahariya.

In response to the recent rocket attack from Lebanon, IDF artillery forces fired toward the source of the launch.
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 12, 2014

"Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in the Nahariya region," an army spokeswoman told AFP.

Friday, three rockets were launched from Lebanon to Israel prompting the Israelis to fire at least 25 artillery shells.

Southern Lebanon is a stronghold of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, but both Israeli and Lebanese officials do not think the group was behind Friday’s rocket attacks. Hezbollah and Hamas have had a rocky relationship since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, with Hezbollah siding with Bashar Assad and Hamas siding with the rebels. However, the two are bonded by a mutual struggle against Israel.

The Daily Star reported Osama Hamdan, the head of Hamas' international relations department, said there is cooperation on the ground between the two militant groups.

#PT #Hamas official in #Lebanon said today there is "constant field cooperation" with #Hizbullah. In which case, Hizb OK'd tonight's strikes
— Alex Rowell (@disgraceofgod) July 12, 2014

“The relationship with Hezbollah and Iran today is better than everyone thinks, and ties with Hezbollah [specifically] is by far better than what [enemy] optimists want to believe,” Hamadan said in remarks published Saturday in As-Safir news. “These ties are based on confronting the Zionist and working on liberating Palestine. Everyone is keen on preserving such a relationship regardless of how much the circumstances change and opinions differ."

However, neither party has released an official statement claiming responsibility for the missile launches.

Saturday’s artillery strike on Lebanon began just minutes after an IDF attack on the home of the Gaza police chief, killing at least 18 Palestinians. The death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 150 in the past five days, the Associated Press reported.

Israel