Two Palestinians dead in strike on Lebanon

Two Palestinian gunmen were killed in an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon yesterday after firing rockets towards the Jewish state, Lebanese security sources said.

They said a group of Palestinians fired three rockets at northern Israel, one day after Israel assassinated Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza, drawing Israeli strikes on the area from two helicopters.

A third Palestinian was wounded, they added. It was not clear whether the gunmen belonged to a particular group.

Israel's army said no rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory when it struck.

"The air force attacked... a terrorist squad preparing launchers for the firing of rockets into Israel. The members of the squad were hit in the attack," a military spokeswoman said.

Lebanon's Hizbollah guerillas attacked Israeli posts in a disputed border area on Monday, drawing air raids, in response to Israel's killing of the wheelchair-bound leader of the Islamist Palestinian group behind dozens of suicide bombings.

The border had been quiet in recent weeks but there have been sporadic flareups since Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation.

Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said after Sheik Yassin's killing that "the Zionists will discover soon that they have committed a very big folly, to add to their series of previous follies".

Sheik Nasrallah said Israel would pay a "heavy price" for its "ugly crime".

Sheik Yassin's Hamas group has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings since the start of a Palestinian uprising more than three years ago.