[OMANOBSERVER] The Israeli air force struck a Palestinian group in Lebanon yesterday, officials said, hours after a different organisation said it had fired four rockets at the Jewish state.The raid, which the Lebanese army said caused no casualties or damage, nonetheless drew condemnation from the Lebanese government as a violation of its sovereignty after it had vowed to hunt down the perpetrators of Thursday's rocket fire.
Lebanese President Michel Sleimane, who had condemned Thursday's rocket fire, also denounced the Israeli retaliation, adding that he had asked Foreign Minister Adnane Mansour to lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council.
"Border violations are a matter settled by the UNIFIL panel of inquiry and not by aggression and violation of Lebanese sovereignty as Israel did in Naameh," his office said.
Israeli aircraft "targeted a site located between Beirut and Sidon in response to a barrage of four rockets launched at northern Israel yesterday (Thursday)," the military said.
"The pilots reported direct hits to the target."
Palestinian and Lebanese officials said the target was a position of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command (PFLP-GC), a group that said it had nothing to do with Thursday's rocket fire.
The salvo of four rockets, which caused damage but no casualties, was claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades.
Israeli army spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai said the rockets were "launched by the global terror organisation".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened retaliation, saying on Thursday that "anyone who harms us, or tries to harm us, should know -- we will strike them."