Rocket from Lebanon hits Israel; Israel fires back

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A rocket fired from Lebanon struck inside northern Israel Tuesday causing no damage or injury, and Israel responded with artillery fire at Lebanon, the Israeli military and a Lebanese security source said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel was treating the shooting along the normally quiet though tense border "very seriously" and that it held the Lebanese government responsible.

There were no reports of casualties from the rocket that security sources said slammed into an open area near the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmone, or from Israel's subsequent artillery fire at Lebanon.

A Lebanese security source confirmed a rocket had been fired from southern Lebanon from the village of Houla, and another Lebanese security source said Israel fired at least eight artillery shells afterwards toward that area.

The rocket was fired from an area near where the United Nations has investigated Lebanese charges that Israel planted spy devices then subsequently exploded them last week.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the shooting.

Both Israel and Lebanon accuse each other of violating a U.N.-brokered ceasefire from 2006 that ended a month-long war between Israel and the Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Lebanon says that if confirmed, the listening devices it says Israel planted and blew up would be a violation of that truce, in addition to the overflight of unmanned drone surveillance aircraft over southern Lebanon.

Israel has complained about two recent blasts involving weapons storage depots in southern Lebanon, and two rockets fired from Lebanon at northern Israel last month. A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda said it was responsible for the rocket attack.

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut; Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Jon Boyle)