UPDATE - 20 rockets fired from Lebanon land in open areas of northern Israel

CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE; UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, HEZBOLLAH STATEMENT

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Twenty rockets were fired from Lebanon and landed in open areas in northern Israel, Israeli media reported on Friday.

The Israeli Channel 12 said "15 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Kiryat Shmona” in northern Israel.

It explained that "several rockets were intercepted, and there were no injuries."

The channel did not specify the area from which the rockets were fired, nor the party responsible for that.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli media reported that five rockets were fired from Lebanon and landed in open areas in the northern Israeli settlement of Metula.

The rockets landed in open areas, the daily Haaretz said, citing the Metula local council.

However, alarm sirens were activated in the Metula and Kfar Yuval settlements, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

The Lebanon-based Hezbollah group said in a statement that its forces targeted “the headquarters of the 769th Brigade in the Kiryat Shmona barracks with appropriate weapons and hit them directly."

The attack came in response to “the attacks carried out by the (Israeli) enemy in southern Lebanese towns.”

Fears have grown about a full-blown war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah amid a months-long exchange of cross-border fire, especially with Hezbollah threatening military retaliation after the assassination of its top commander Fouad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut on July 30.

The escalation comes against the backdrop of an Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip which has killed nearly 39,700 people since last October following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi