On Friday morning, the Lebanese army announced that it had found a launcher containing a number of missiles that did not launch in the southern border area, hours after Israel launched raids in response to the missiles it targeted, accusing Palestinian groups of standing behind them.

The army said in a statement that one of its units "found in the Marjayoun Plain a rocket launcher containing a number of missiles that did not launch, and work is underway to dismantle them."

The army posted on Twitter pictures showing the launcher placed inside an olive field, and inside it were six missiles out of a total of 12 that did not launch.
On Thursday, the army dismantled rockets that were ready to be launched, and they were found in the vicinity of the towns of Qalila and Zibqin in the Tire district, which is the area from which barrages of rockets were launched towards Israel. No party has claimed responsibility for that.

Israel counted at least 34 rockets launched from southern Lebanon at it, five of which fell in residential areas, causing one injury. It accused Palestinian factions of standing behind it, likely to be Hamas or Islamic Jihad, and at the same time ruled out any role for Hezbollah, its archenemy backed by Iran.

The Israeli army carried out raids at dawn on Friday in the Tyre area, which it said hit "targets, including terrorist infrastructure belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization."

This is the first time that Israel has launched raids on Lebanon since the summer of 2021, noting that the number of missiles launched at it on Thursday is the largest since 2006.

The Israeli missiles landed in open agricultural lands. One of them caused damage to the roof of a house belonging to a farmer and his family in an orchard near the Rashidieh refugee camp, located south of Tire and close to the area from which the rockets were launched towards Israel.

Another missile landed near a banana grove in the town of Qulaila, destroying a main electricity pole, leaving a deep hole in the ground, according to what an AFP photographer saw.

"We were in the village and people were waiting for the Israelis to respond because rockets were fired from the area at them in response to the acts of violence and beatings of worshipers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque," a resident of the town, Muhsin Nasr al-Din Murtada, told AFP.

He added, "There are no military sites here for Hezbollah, Hamas, or the Palestinians. This is evidence of the weakness of the Israeli, who is venting his anger (by targeting) banana orchards."

In a statement at dawn on Friday, the United Nations Interim Force in South Lebanon (UNIFIL) urged a halt to the escalation across the border, and quoted the two sides as saying, "They do not want war."

Israeli fighters launched a series of raids on targets in the Gaza Strip at midnight Thursday-Friday, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources, following the launch of a barrage of missiles from Lebanon.

This came after the Israeli police stormed the Temple Mount from Tuesday night until Wednesday, and arrested about 350 Palestinians who had barricaded themselves there, describing them as "troublemakers."

The confrontations come in an atmosphere of increasing tension between the Israelis and the Palestinians, especially during the month of Ramadan, when Muslims usually retreat to Al-Aqsa Mosque and perform night prayers there.