UPDATE - Hezbollah fires rockets at Israel in retaliation for air strikes

UPDATES WITH HEZBOLLAH STATEMENT, ISRAELI RETALIATION; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Abdelraouf Arnaout and Wassim Seifeddine
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (AA) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Friday claimed responsibility for firing a barrage of rockets at northern Israel.

“Open lands in the vicinity of Israeli occupation sites in the Shebaa Farms were targeted with dozens of 122 mm rockets,” the group said in a statement.

Hezbollah said the bombing was “in response to Israeli airstrikes on open lands in the al-Jarmaq and al-Shawakir areas on Thursday night.”

Israeli forces retaliated by firing artillery munitions at the Kafr Shuba and Habariya areas in southern Lebanon, according to an Anadolu Agency correspondent.

Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), said Hezbollah fired 19 rockets from the northern part of Shebaa.

He claimed three of the rockets fell inside Lebanon, 10 were intercepted, and six landed in open areas without causing casualties or damage.

The IDF said on Twitter that it was “currently striking the rocket launch sites in Lebanon.”

Earlier on Friday, an Anadolu Agency correspondent in Shebaa reported that unknown persons had fired a missile toward Israel from the border town of Shawaya.

He said the Lebanese army has mobilized forces in the border region and started a hunt for the perpetrators.

A truck with a missile launcher mounted on it was founded abandoned in the area.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat