Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati says that his country ‘refuses any escalation from its territory’

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati has condemned the barrage of rockets fired towards Israel from its soil on Thursday (April 6), saying that his country ‘refuses any escalation from its territory’. Mikati said in a statement that Lebanon rejects the use of its territory to carry out operations that destabilize the situation.

Earlier that day, a large number of rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon on the Jewish holiday of Passover. This is the largest escalation along the border since Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006.

The Israeli army blamed Palestinian groups for the attack, saying in a statement that ’25 rockets were intercepted by Israeli air defenses, while five rockets landed in Israeli territory.’ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s enemies would ‘pay a price’ for the attack.

During a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, ‘We will strike our enemies, and they will pay the price for any act of aggression.’

The rocket strikes followed clashes at the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, where Israeli police raided the mosque compound on successive nights during Ramadan. Israel has been facing worldwide pressure due to these raids.

After Jerusalem blamed Palestinian groups for the rocket strikes, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said Palestinians ‘will not sit with their arms crossed’ in the face of Israeli aggression against the mosque. Haniyeh added that ‘our Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance groups will not sit idly by’ and called on ‘all Palestinian organizations to unify their ranks and intensify their resistance against the Zionist occupation (Israel).’

Regarding the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip that followed the rocket attacks, a Palestinian security source said that the strikes hit several Hamas training sites. Further strikes were heard half an hour later, and aircraft could be heard flying overhead. Lt. Colonel Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesperson, said that ‘we know for sure it’s Palestinian fire. It could be Hamas, it could be Islamic Jihad, we are still trying to finalize but it wasn’t Hezbollah.’ He also added that they were investigating whether Iran was involved.