Katyusha rockets from Lebanon hit N.Israel town

By Benny Dagan

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (Reuters) - Suspected Palestinian fighters in Lebanon hit a northern Israeli town with two Katyusha rockets on Sunday, Lebanese and Israeli officials said. No one was hurt.

Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, who fired thousands of Katyushas into Israel a year ago, denied they launched the first such attack since that war. In all, three rockets were fired.

Israeli forces did not retaliate and the government made clear it wanted no escalation into another border war.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the rocket firing had made for a "very disturbing day" but he pointedly stopped short of threatening any Israeli military response.

Olmert was speaking in New York at a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during a three-day visit to the United States. He will meet President George W. Bush on Tuesday.

An Israeli official traveling with Olmert said the firing was apparently carried out by Palestinians and not by Hezbollah.

A Lebanese security source also blamed Palestinians, though any motivation was unclear.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping force called it a "serious breach" of last year's ceasefire and urged restraint. It sent out patrols with the Lebanese army to find the attackers and stop further incidents.

Olmert said that the attack on the town of Kiryat Shmona "re-emphasizes the role of UNIFIL and Lebanon's army in southern Lebanon".

Lebanese forces found a wooden launch platform armed with timers, along with a fourth rocket that did not fire.

The attack came a few hours after a new, Western-backed Palestinian emergency government was sworn in the West Bank after a week of bloody Palestinian faction fighting that saw the Islamist group Hamas seize control in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and Hezbollah follow different branches of Islam but have some things in common, including support from Iran and Syria.

The 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have also been affected in recent weeks by fighting between Lebanese troops and al Qaeda-inspired Palestinian Islamists in a camp in the north.

CAR DAMAGED

Two Katyushas landed in an industrial park in Kiryat Shmona, Israeli police said. One damaged a parked car. There were no casualties.