Israel army rules out Lebanon 'infiltration'
There're no launches at this point from Lebanon. There're no alerts, says army spokesman
Tiberias: The Israeli army said Wednesday an "error" was behind reports of a suspected "aerial infiltration" from Lebanon, and that a rocket alert in the north was due to a launch from Gaza.
"There are no launches at this point from Lebanon. There are no alerts," army spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.
"This has been an error that we are looking into... We will check wether it's a technical malfunction or a human error."
Earlier sirens were activated in cities and towns across Israel's northern border.
In a statement, the army said: "Following the reports regarding an infiltration into Israeli air space from Lebanon, as of right now, a suspected infiltration has been ruled out."
The army's Home Front Command had asked residents of border communities in the Galilee and annexed Golan Heights as well as the Haifa area to shelter "until further notice" fearing a "large-scale attack".
An AFP team was in the city of Tiberias, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, when the news broke out and immediately took shelter.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said its forces had fired rockets at Haifa, a major coastal city in Israel's north.
In its latest statement, the army said that following rocket alerts in areas near Haifa about 130 kilometres north of Gaza, "a rocket launch was identified from the Gaza Strip".