The eerie sound of katyusha rocket fire returned to Israel's northern border towns early yesterday and Israel suffered its first civilian injury since a US-brokered ceasefire ended Israel's massive 16-day bombardment of Lebanon in April last year.
Two rockets fell in the town of Kiryat Shmona, which had been the main target of Hizbullah rocket attacks during Israel's Operation Grapes of Wrath 16 months ago. In retaliation, Israeli planes later bombed guerrilla bases south of Beirut. One of the Hizbullah rockets landed in open space, but the other ploughed into a synagogue where worshippers were reciting morning prayers. While all the congregants escaped injury, the rocket left a hole in the roof of the building and debris strewn across the synagogue floor. A woman living nearby was lightly wounded when she was hit by flying glass. The attack forced residents into bomb shelters for several hours yesterday morning.
The latest katyusha salvo is part of an upsurge in battles between the Israeli army, its proxy South Lebanon Army militia and Iranian-backed Hizbullah guerrillas. It was sparked earlier in the week by an Israeli commando raid that left five Hizbullah gunmen dead. Seven Lebanese civilians and one Israeli-allied militiaman have also been killed in the fighting over the last week.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Yitzhak Mordechai, touring Kiryat Shmona yesterday, said that Israel reserved the right to strike at Hizbullah "whenever and wherever" it wanted. The question, though, was whether a set of US-brokered understandings - reached after Israel's bombardment of Lebanon last year in which some 170 people, most of them civilians, died - was in danger of falling apart. The agreement forbids either side from targeting civilians and bans attacks launched from civilian positions - a ploy Hizbullah had regularly used.
While Mr Mordechai blamed Hizbullah and the Lebanese government for violating the agreement, a Hizbullah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, denied responsibility for the attack, saying: "We're not the kind who fire at night and then hide in the morning."
But Mr Nasrallah warned that if Lebanese civilians continued to die, "we will absolve ourselves from the April understanding".
Meanwhile, on the eve of the visit by the US peace envoy, Mr Dennis Ross, Israel yesterday partially eased its blockade of Palestinian-controlled areas imposed after suicide bombings in Jerusalem last week killed 15 people. The blockade on two West Bank Palestinian cities - Nablus and Jericho - was lifted and Palestinians were allowed to cross the Allenby Bridge into Jordan, but other West Bank cities remained sealed by the Israeli army.
Reuter reports from Brussels: The EU said yesterday it was concerned about what it termed counter-productive measures introduced by Israel after last month's Jerusalem bombings. Luxembourg's Foreign Minister, Mr Jacques Poos, speaking for the presidency, said the EU would express its concerns to the Israeli government.
Mr Arafat wrote to Mr Poos last week asking him to intervene and put pressure on Israel to lift some of the measures introduced after the bombings.
"The European Union fully shares your concern about the disastrous effect of the measures decided by the Israeli government. . . Many of these. . . are new and seem to be excessive," Mr Poos replied. He said the measures were punishing the Palestinian population, although its responsibility for the bombings had not been established. "Their only effect will be to strengthen those who fight against the peace process."
Peter Hirschberg is a senior writer at the Jerusalem Report