Israeli forces wound 5 Lebanon protesters near border — media

BEIRUT — Five people protesting on the Lebanon-Israel border against air strikes in Gaza were wounded on Tuesday by tear gas cannisters and smoke bombs fired by Israeli forces, Lebanese state media said.

“A number of demonstrators climbed a concrete border fence, raised Hizbollah flags and banners, and threw stones,” the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

“Israeli forces fired tear gas and smoke bombs, leaving five people wounded.”

NNA did not say if those injured were Lebanese citizens or Palestinian refugees.

Since last week, a series of protests along Lebanon’s frontier have been held against Israel’s air campaign on Gaza, a densely populated Palestinian enclave.

That air assault has killed 213 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, while 12 have been killed on the Israeli side by thousands of rockets fired at Israel from inside Gaza.

A Lebanese demonstrator was killed by Israeli fire on Friday after he tried to cross the border fence into northern Israel.

Several others have been wounded in similar incidents over the past week which came amid heightened tensions along the border.

On Monday, the Israeli army said it launched artillery fire towards Lebanon in response to rocket fire from the neighbouring country that failed to hit Israel.

The Lebanese army on Tuesday said that 10 shells and seven flare bombs had been fired by Israel into south Lebanon in response to the rocket attack — which no group has yet claimed.

The Lebanese army said it seized seven rocket launchers — six unloaded and one still carrying a rocket — outside the southern village of Al Habariyya as part of a probe into who is responsible for the rocket fire.

Last Thursday, three rockets were also fired from southern Lebanon near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh towards Israel. Israel’s army said those rockets landed in the sea.

Hizbollah, Israel’s arch nemesis, has yet to comment on either Thursday’s or Monday’s rocket attack but sources close to the powerful Iran-backed Shiite movement deny any link.