BEIRUT: The Israeli air force struck early Friday an area south of Beirut, the Israeli military and a member of an armed Palestinian armed faction based in Lebanon said, and a Daily Star journalist said a base belonging to an armed Palestinian faction in the area was the target.
An official with the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) told The Daily Star that a missile hit a valley in Naameh, an area some 15 kilometers south of Beirut, where the Palestinian group maintains a military base.
A Daily Star journalist at the scene said the missile struck just meters from the entrance to one of a series of underground tunnels belonging to the PFLP-GC in the valley.
The PFLP-GC is headed by Ahmad Jibril, a staunch supporter of Syria’s President Bashar Assad.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television quoted a PFLP-GC spokesman as saying the Palestinian group’s base was the target of the attack but that there were no casualties or material damage.
An Israeli army statement said the air force "targeted a terror site located between Beirut and Sidon in response to a barrage of four rockets launched at northern Israel yesterday,” according to Agence France Press news agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned Thursday that the Israeli military would retaliate for the rocket attack into Israeli territory.
The PFLP-GC source denied Friday there was a link between the early morning air raid in Naameh and the rocket attack into Israel Thursday.
The last rocket attack from Lebanon into Israel was in May of this year.
Thursday’s incident comes more than two weeks after a blast wounded four Israeli soldiers in Lebanon off the border town of Labbouneh. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for the blast. – With AFP
