Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, ''Three rockets landed in Israel fired from Lebanon,'' adding that two people were slightly wounded in the area around the northern town of Nahariya yesterday.

An army spokeswoman said, ''We carried out direct fire at the source of the rocket fire from Lebanon.''

A Lebanese army spokesman said, ''Between two and three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon. Israel has retaliated with five or six rockets.''

As the new front in the battle opened, Middle East envoy Tony Blair urged the United States to back a Franco-Egyptian plan for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The former British prime minister, in Paris for a conference on reforming capitalism, said he believed a truce accord could be reached.

''I believe that it is now very important for the United States, along with the Security Council, and for everybody to do everything possible so that we can reach this accord,'' Mr Blair said in a radio interview in French.

Israel's offensive in Gaza, launched in response to consistent rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, has sparked widespread anger in the Muslim world amid a mounting civilian death toll.

The rockets fell a day after the chief of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Shi'ite militia with which Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006, warned ''all possibilities'' were open against Israel amid its offensive in Gaza.

A Hezbollah spokesman had ''no immediate confirmation'' on the strike, and a Hezbollah official in southern Lebanon, Haidar Dokmak, would only say, ''We are verifying that report.''

The last time rockets from Lebanon hit northern Israel was on June 17, 2007, hitting the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, causing minor damage and no injuries.

At the time, Hezbollah denied responsibility.

Israel also said Hezbollah was not involved in the attack and blamed it on an unnamed Palestinian group.

Israeli media cited unnamed military sources saying yesterday's attack was likely to have also come from Palestinian groups firing in retaliation to Israel's deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Officials from Lebanon's two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, denied responsibility for yesterday's fire.

Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, Raafat Morra, said his movement was not responsible for the rockets incident.

''Hamas is pursuing its combat inside Palestine and our principle is not to use any other Arab soil to respond to the occupation,'' Mr Morra said in Lebanon.

Fatah official Munir Makdah said, ''I doubt that this is the work of any Palestinian faction, the Palestinians are committed not to use Lebanon as a front and our weapons are under the authority of the Lebanese.'' Residents of southern Lebanon began to leave the area after the early-morning fire.

''The residents are starting to flee. There is panic in the area,'' resident Fathi Badawi said.

Israel and Hezbollah militia fought a 34-day war in 2006, after guerrillas from the Lebanese Shi'ite movement seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.

The war killed more than 1200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. During the conflict, Hezbollah sent more than 4000 rockets into northern Israel.

Hezbollah carried out its deadly raid in 2006 two weeks into Israel's last major operation in Gaza, which was in turn launched after Gaza militants seized another Israeli soldier in a raid near the Palestinian territory.

In his address on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said, ''We have to act as though all possibilities are real and open [against Israel] and we must always be ready for any eventuality.'' His comment marked the first time he has spoken so openly on the possibility of a renewed conflict with Israel since the war in Gaza began.

Israel's offensive on Gaza, launched in response to consistent rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave, has sparked widespread anger in the Muslim world amid a mounting civilian death toll.

The war has killed more than 700 Palestinians, including 220 children, and wounded 3100 people.

AFP