BEIRUT (AFP) — Hezbollah denied it fired a salvo of rockets on Thursday into Israel as the Lebanese government launched an inquiry amid heightened fears of a second front opening up in the Gaza war.
Israel said three rockets slammed into an area around the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, lightly wounding two people, and the army said it fired back at the launch site.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack although officials in both Lebanon and Israel said it could have been the work of a Palestinian faction.
The United Nations force deployed in southern Lebanon to monitor peace between Lebanon and Israel went on the alert and the Beirut government ordered an investigation, saying it would not be dragged into a new war with Israel.
"The council of ministers rejects the use of Lebanon as a launchpad for rocket attacks that would give Israel the pretext to attack Lebanon, and will not be dragged into a war," a government statement said.
The government has "instructed the authorities to investigate and pursue those responsible," said the statement read to reporters by Information Minister Tarek Mitri.
The cabinet, which includes a representative of the Islamist Hezbollah militant movement, said Lebanon was committed to UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended a 34-day war with Israel in summer 2006.
Earlier Hezbollah Labour Minister Mohammed Fneish denied the group's involvement. "Hezbollah is not aware of the rocket attack," he told AFP. "Everyone knows that Hezbollah does not shy away from claiming responsibility for its actions."
Fneish is the sole Hezbollah representative in the 30-member national unity government.
Mitri earlier told AFP Hezbollah "has assured us that they remain committed to stability and Resolution 1701," and added that Lebanon would be "more vigilant" to ensure the incident was not repeated.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora condemned the rocket attack as well as Israel's retaliatory artillery shelling, saying it violated Resolution 1701.
"We have asked the competent authorities in cooperation with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to investigate," he said.
The United States also condemned the attacks. "We definitely do not want to see this conflict widen," State Department spokesman Robert Woods said.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said from Madrid that he hoped the rocket salvo was an "isolated incident and that it does not complicate things."
There have been fears of another front another front opening up in southern Lebanon since Israel launched its offensive on Gaza on December 27, but Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has stuck to rhetoric in denouncing the operation.
On Wednesday he warned Israel that all "possibilities are open," however.
Representatives of the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, both denied any involvement in the attack.
Ahmed Jibril, the Damascus-based leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, had threatened on January 3 to open up new military fronts against Israel if the war in Gaza escalates.
A spokesman for his party would neither confirm nor deny any involvement in the rocket attack, but slammed Israel's offensive in Gaza and inaction by Arab states.
Israeli warplanes also flew low over south Lebanon on Thursday, AFP correspondents witnessed.
Meanwhile UNIFIL said it had boosted the number of troops deployed in southern Lebanon in an effort to contain the situation and was investigating the incident.
The UNIFIL commander also "called for maximum restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation," spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said.
UNIFIL has some 13,000 troops from various countries in southern Lebanon.
The force, which was set up in 1978 to monitor the border between Israel and Lebanon, was considerably boosted in the wake of the 2006 war.
Thursday's rockets were fired from outside the village of Tayr Harfa, near the border with Israel -- the same area where security forces found seven missiles pointed at Israel in December.
Hezbollah also denied involvement in that incident.
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