New rockets from Lebanon fired at Israel

Militants in Lebanon rocketed northern Israel on Wednesday for the second time in a week, drawing Israeli artillery fire as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce in Gaza intensified.
In Egypt, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon appealed for an immediate end to the fighting.
"It is intolerable that civilians bear the brunt of this conflict," said Ban, who was expected in Israel on Thursday.
Israel, which began its offensive on Dec. 27, struck some 85 targets in the strip bordering southern Israel. One airstrike hit an overcrowded cemetery, spreading body parts and rotting flesh over a wide area. The army said the airstrike targeted a nearby weapons cache.
Israel launched the onslaught in Gaza to punish the ruling Hamas militant group for years of rocket attacks on southern Israel.
The offensive has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 300 minors, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Gaza health ministry official. The toll included 11 Palestinians killed Wednesday.
Thirteen Israelis have been killed since the offensive began, four by rocket fire from Gaza.
The rocket fire from Lebanon caused no injuries, and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group that fought a monthlong war with Israel in 2006, denied involvement in last week's attack, and speculation focused on small Palestinian groups.
Lebanese officials said Israeli artillery fired at least eight shells on south Lebanon in response. There were no reports of injuries.
The Israeli military said the Lebanese government was responsible for preventing attacks on Israel. Lebanon condemned the attack.
Maj. Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, downplayed the rocket attack from Lebanon.
"This is a minor event and I suggest that we treat it as such," she said.
The Muslim world has expressed outrage over Israel's Gaza offensive, and in a new condemnation Wednesday, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden urged Muslims to launch a holy war against Israel.
Israeli military officials have said talks in Cairo will determine whether Israel moves closer to a truce with Hamas or widens its offensive to send thousands of reservists into urban areas where casualties on both sides would likely mount.
Israel wants an end to rocket attacks from Gaza and guarantees of a halt in the smuggling of weapons into Gaza through the porous Egyptian border. Hamas has called for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Twelve rockets were fired at Israel on Wednesday, down from as many as 80 a day early in the war.
Overnight, Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships pounded a police court in Gaza City, rocket-launching sites, gunmen, weapons-production and storage facilities and about 35 weapons smuggling tunnels, the military said. Later, witnesses in southern Gaza reported air strikes on the house of a rocket squad leader and a militant's car.
Aircraft also struck the Sheikh Radwan cemetery in Gaza City, destroying about 30 graves and scattering bits of flesh and body parts, residents said.
"There was flesh on the roofs, there were small bits of intestines. My neighbor found a hand of a woman who died a long time ago, we put it all into a plastic bag," said resident Ahmad Abu Jarbou.
Leibovich, the Israeli military spokeswoman, said the army targeted a weapons cache next to the cemetery and a nearby rocket-launching site.
She said Israel has destroyed 60 percent to 70 percent of the weapons smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egyptian border.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using mosques, schools and other civilian areas to stage attacks or store weapons. Aid groups have said Israeli forces must be more careful to prevent civilian casualties.
In other fighting, artillery units fired shells that spread white smoke above the city center, witnesses said. Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using phosphorous shells _ a weapon that can burn anything it touches and is used to illuminate targets at night or create a smoke screen for day attacks.
Jakob Kellenberger, head of the international Red Cross, said in Jerusalem that his group had "no evidence" that Israeli forces were using phosphorus shells. He urged Israel to exercise "extreme caution" in order to avoid civilian casualties.
The Israeli military has said only that it uses munitions in accordance with international law.
Kellenberger welcomed the three-hour daily lulls in the fighting set by Israelis to let aid groups funnel aid and assist the wounded in Gaza, but he said more time was needed.
"You must have access at any time to people who are wounded," he said.
Also, nine Israeli human rights groups accused the army of endangering Gazan civilians and called for a war crimes investigation. The groups said in a letter to Israeli leaders that the Gaza campaign has left civilians with nowhere to flee.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel supports freedom of expression, even if an opinion "is not based on any solid evidence and even if it is tainted with political bias."
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Teibel reported from Jerusalem. AP correspondent Karen Zolka contributed to this report.