Israel launches airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, after vowing to retaliate over a barrage of cross-border rockets fired from Lebanon, which it blamed on Palestinian groups.

Militants in Lebanon fired a heavy barrage of rockets at Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, forcing people across Israel's northern frontier into bomb shelters, wounding at least two people and ratcheting up regional tensions a day after Israeli police raided Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site.

Israel's military said 34 rockets had been fired across the border and that 25 had been shot down by its Iron Dome aerial defense system. Another five rockets struck Israeli territory, and the rest of the strikes were being investigated, security forces added.

The unusually large salvo of rockets raised fears of a wider conflagration, as Israel's bitter enemy, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, holds sway over much of southern Lebanon. Over the past two days, tensions have skyrocketed at the sacred compound home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and along Israel’s tense border with Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed an “aggressive response.”

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