Israeli jets attack Lebanon in response to rocket-fire.

Israeli war-planes have hit what its military said were rocket launch sites in Lebanon. 

The air strikes were in response to what Israel said was rocket fire from Lebanese territory on Wednesday, which struck open areas in northern Israel, causing brush fires along the hilly frontier. 

Although there was no claim of responsibility for the attack, neutral sources confirmed that it came from an area of south Lebanon under the control of Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters.

Israel responded with several rounds of artillery fire on Wednesday before launching the air strikes early on Thursday.

“Fighter jets struck the launch sites and infrastructure used for terror in Lebanon from which the rockets were launched,” the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) said in a statement.

The statement added that the IDF also hit an area that had seen rocket launches in the past.

Reacting to the airstrikes, Lebanese President Michel Aoun called them “an escalation”.

The latest clashes come as Lebanon finds itself neck-deep in economic, financial and political crises.

The last conflict between Israel and Lebanon was a bloody, month-long war in 2006, which was spearheaded on the Lebanese side by the Hezbollah militant group.