SIDON, Lebanon (AFP) — Israel sent telephone warnings to residents of south Lebanon on Wednesday after militants fired three rockets over the border threatening a second front in the 19-day-old war in Gaza.
"People of Lebanon, launching rockets from southern Lebanon against innocents in northern Israel harms your own interests," one of the warnings said, according to an AFP correspondent who was at the receiving end.
"We warn you against any repetition of these destructive acts."
A second message warned: "This is a statement from the state of Israel to the residents of southern Lebanon.
"If you allow groups like Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah to launch rockets against innocents in northern Israel as you did before, remember what happened to you last time."
The statement was alluding to the devastating 34-day war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 sparked by the capture by the Shiite militants of Hezbollah of two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.
Wednesday's rocket salvo, which caused no casualties, was the second since Israel launched its onslaught against Gaza which has left nearly 1,000 Palestinians dead since January 27.
Hezbollah distanced itself from anything that might spark a new war with Israel, shifting suspicion against fringe Palestinian militant groups.
In July, Communications Minister Gibran Bassil accused Israel of bombarding Lebanese people with threatening phone calls, a day after a controversial prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah.
Many Lebanese received similar phone messages during the 2006 conflict which left more than 1,200 people dead in Lebanon, most of them civilians as well as more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
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