The rocket fired from Lebanon hit open ground east of the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona and started a fire, which did not cause any serious damage, they said.

Witnesses in Kiryat Shmona said Israeli artillery retaliated by firing on targets in southern Lebanon. Asked to comment, an Israeli military source would neither confirm nor deny that.

Following the incident, a security source in Lebanon said eight rockets fired from Israeli hit near the border village of Hula. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

UN peacekeeping troops and the Lebanese army cut off the road leading to Hula and were searching the area, an AFP correspondent said.

Residents of Hula told AFP they heard a rocket fired from the brush outside the village shortly before the rockets hit the area.

This was the fourth rocket attack this year from Lebanon towards Israel and comes as cross-border tensions have been increasing.

On September 11, at least two rockets fired from the southern village of Al-Qlaileh slammed into Israel without causing casualties but triggering retaliatory artillery fire.

A group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility, according to US monitoring group SITE Intelligence.

In February, Israeli artillery bombarded Al-Qlaileh in response to a rocket attack. There were no casualties in Lebanon, while a few Israelis were lightly wounded.

In January, during Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, four rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel, wounding two women.

Shiite movement Hezbollah, which fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in 2006, has its stronghold in south Lebanon, where a rocket exploded on October 12 in the home of activist Abdel Nasser Issa in Tayr Felsay village.

The Israeli army released film it said showed rockets being removed from Issa's home following the explosion but Hezbollah said the pictures were of metal shutters at the location where explosion happened.

The Israeli army said the blast "proves again the presence of weapons forbidden in southern Lebanon" under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war.

The 34-day war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Resolution 1701 called for the removal of weapons in southern Lebanon from the hands of everyone except the Lebanese army and other state security forces.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of rearming, and an Israeli army spokesman claimed on Tuesday night the group has "dozens of arms caches containing hundreds of rockets."

Following the October 12 incident, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Hezbollah of having turned Lebanon into a powderkeg.

"Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into a powderkeg," he said. "It's not Israel that is endangering Lebanon, but rather Hezbollah, just as Hamas is endangering the Palestinians.

"There is no reason for Israel not to make peace with Lebanon," he said, adding that Israel's northern neighbour "could be, with the help of this peace, the Switzerland of the Middle East. But it's clear to everyone who is preventing this."

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