A Palestinian terror faction was likely responsible for the rocket launched into Israel from southern Lebanon on Sunday, an Israeli military spokesman said on Monday.
Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav told 103 FM that while no group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack, “We know that the Palestinian arena does not start at the Temple Mount and does not end in Jenin and Gaza, but reaches certain factions in Lebanon and maybe even other places.”
Israel currently faces a “certain type of multi-arena campaign, in Jenin, in the cities of Judea and Samaria, the Seam Line, on the Temple Mount, of course, during Ramadan, and in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
The fact that the rocket attack had occurred during Ramadan, he added, strengthens the assessment that “these are Palestinian factions” behind the launch, Kochav stated.
Asked which faction or factions, Kochav said Palestinians who are “not Hezbollah” and who are “directed by Gaza, the Temple Mount, and Hamas in Judea and Samaria.” These factions’ interests, he said, differed from those of Hezbollah.
“They identify as Palestinians. I assess that it came from them, but again, I say cautiously, we do not yet have certainty on this information,” he said.
Whoever had launched the rocket had been quite careful about it, deliberately aiming at an uninhabited area in the Galilee, said Kochav.
The attackers “do not intend to drag the Middle East into a war. They know what would happen if someone [in Israel], God forbid, were to be harmed,” he said.
While the IDF has declared a return to routine activities for the Israeli home front, the military is “always ready for developments of any kind,” he added.
“At the moment, the [military] effort is more [focused] in Judea and Samaria and Gaza. If necessary, we’ll fight in Lebanon too,” he said.
In response to the rocket attack, the Israeli military on Monday fired “tens” of artillery shells at targets in southern Lebanon and also attacked an “infrastructure target,” according to the IDF.
