JERUSALEM — At least three rockets fired from Lebanon exploded in northern Israel today in the first such attack since Israel launched an assault in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip nearly two weeks ago.
Israel fired artillery shells into Lebanon to retaliate for the rockets, which landed after daybreak around the town of Nahariya. Israeli medical workers said one of the rockets from Lebanon caused light shrapnel wounds to two women in a home for the elderly.
The Israeli military had been on alert for rocket attacks by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, a Hamas ally, since starting the Gaza offensive Dec. 27. Police said the rockets were Katyushas, the kind Hezbollah used during its 34-day war with Israel in mid-2006.
No group claimed responsibility for today's rocket attacks. Small Palestinian groups unaffiliated with Hezbollah also possess Katyushas.
In Gaza, Israel and Hamas scaled back their fighting Wednesday and weighed a cease-fire proposal from Egypt and France, even as Israeli leaders considered a deeper assault into the Palestinian group's urban strongholds.
Fighting on Wednesday in the air, land and sea offensive all but stopped for three hours during a unilateral Israeli pause. Israeli officials said they wanted to give diplomacy a chance, indicating that a decision either to end or intensify the operation, aimed at halting rocket fire into Israel, could come by week's end.
"From Israel's perspective, there's no contradiction between pursuing the military targets in Gaza and working in parallel on the diplomatic track," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev. He added that "a weaker Hamas is a Hamas that's easier to contain" under any negotiated cease-fire.
Tens of thousands of beleaguered Palestinians ventured into Gaza's streets Wednesday afternoon to stock up on food and fuel, flee to safer quarters, or simply unwind. Fighting bracketed the lull, but the Palestinian death toll, 22, was the lowest of any day since Israel launched its offensive.
Israel, responding to a worldwide outcry over the punishing toll on Gaza's 1.5 million people, suspended its offensive to allow humanitarian agencies to distribute relief supplies. Israeli officials said such brief lulls would be declared daily.
Hamas largely respected the 1-to-4 p.m. pause, which brought calm except for a few reported attacks by each side.
