UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonAFP photo

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned the firing of rockets against Israel from Lebanon.

He urged all sides to exercise "maximum restraint," and cooperate with the UN force in Lebanon to prevent an escalation, reported AFP.

In a statement, Ban said he was "greatly concerned" by the incident, "which is a clear violation of resolution 1701" passed in 2006.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon is investigating alongside the Lebanese and Israeli armies, and the international body "is committed to continuing to work with the parties to ensure that the calm that has prevailed continues to be sustained," the statement added.

Four rockets were fired from Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, with at least one confirmed as having struck in the area of Nahariya.

One rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, between Akko and Nahariya, the IDF said. Three others struck in "open areas." Several residents were treated for shock.

The attack was claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, an Al-Qaeda-linked terror group which had claimed similar rocket fire on Israel in 2009 and 2011.

Hours after the attack, Israeli aircraft struck a terror target south of Beirut. The Lebanese Al-Manar television network, identified with Hezbollah, identified the site attacked by Israel as a base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in the southern Lebanese community of Nu'eimah.

Lebanon’s president Michel Sleiman condemned the rocket fire from southern Lebanon, saying it was a violation of UNSCR 1701, which brought an end to the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and to Lebanon's sovereignty.

While Sleiman condemned the incident, the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terror group would not. A Hezbollah MP, Hasan Fadlallah, said his party was sticking to its policy regarding attacks against Israel.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)