Israel hits Gaza as rockets strike from Lebanon

updated 2:57 a.m. ET Jan. 14, 2009

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli aircraft pounded a cemetery, rocket-launching pads, weapons arsenals and dozens of arms smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip, witnesses and the military said Wednesday, while militants in Lebanon raised the specter of a new front by sending three rockets crashing into northern Israel.

Israeli police said the rockets from Lebanon landed in open areas near the town of Kiryat Shemona, causing no injuries or damage. Residents of northern Israel were instructed to head to bomb shelters following the second attack from Lebanon in less than a week.

Lebanese officials said the Israeli army fired shells on south Lebanon after the rockets were fired on Israel.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Lebanon's Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed guerrilla group that fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, denied involvement in last week's attack and speculation focused on small Palestinian groups in Lebanon.

The rockets flying across its northern border have fueled Israel's fears that militants in Lebanon could try to open a second front in solidarity with Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers.

Israel launched an air and ground onslaught against Hamas 19 days ago.

U.N. chief heads to region
On Wednesday, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon headed to the region to lend his heft to diplomatic efforts to wrest an end to the violence, which has killed more than 940 Palestinians, half of them civilians, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

Thirteen Israelis have also been killed, four of them by rocket fire from Gaza.

Eight years of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns sparked the war, which began with a devastating air offensive, then expanded to include a ground campaign.

Ban's first stop on his weeklong tour was to be Egypt, which is playing a crucial role in cease-fire efforts.

Israeli military officials have said the talks in Cairo, which they term "decisive," will determine whether Israel moves closer to a truce or widens its offensive to send thousands of reservists into crowded, urban areas where casualties on both sides would likely mount.

Israel had planned to send its lead negotiator, Amos Gilad, to Cairo on Wednesday, but his trip was put off because conditions weren't ripe, defense officials said. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the date of his departure has not been set.

Ban is to meet Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who launched an initiative with France a week ago aimed at achieving a temporary halt to the fighting to be followed by a permanent cease-fire and arrangements on border security. He will head from there to Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian-controlled West Bank, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait. His itinerary does not include a stop in Gaza, whose Islamic militant Hamas rulers are shunned by many world powers as a terrorist organization.

Ahead of the U.N. chief's arrival Wednesday, Israel's U.N. ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, wrote him a letter charging that Hamas is "deliberately endangering civilians" in Gaza. She claimed that Hamas operates a command center under Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, and militants "routinely fire from inside the houses of civilians who are held as hostages, prevented by Hamas from leaving."

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