The Israel Defence Forces have shelled southern Lebanon in response to a rocket fire attack on Israel.

IDF artillery units shelled targets in south Lebanon on Sunday after at least three rockets were fired into Israel.

The Times of Israel says The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a terror organization headed by Assad loyalist Ahmed Jibril, is said to have claimed responsibility for the three rockets launched at Israel from southern Lebanon.

According to the Lebanese El-Nashra News website, the rocket fire came from the PFLP-GC as a response to the assassination of Samir Kuntar, the terror chief who was killed Saturday night in a missile attack on his apartment in the suburbs of Damascus.

At least one rocket landed in an open area near Nahariya, according to reports. There are no reports of injuries or damage.

A statement from the army said: “The Israel Defense Forces have responded with targeted artillery fire following the rockets that hit Israel earlier today from southern Lebanon.

“The IDF considers the Lebanese army as solely responsible for what is happening in the territory and will continue to act against any attempt to harm the sovereignty of the State of Israel and the security of its citizens.”

Northern Israel had been bracing for a possible Hezbollah attack since the alleged killing of Hezbollah-affiliated terror chief Samir Kuntar near Damascus on Saturday night, thirty-six years after murdering the Haran family and an Israeli policeman in a vicious terror attack in Nahariya.

Israel’s YNetNews says that according to reports in the Arab media, eight others were killed in the attack, including Farhan al-Shaalan, another senior leader who planned terror attacks against Israelis in the Syrian Golan Heights.

Israel welcomed his death, saying he had been preparing attacks on it from Syrian soil, but stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed him.

Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army claimed on Monday it had killed Samir Kuntar.

The FSA, a moderate secular rebel group that has lost ground to both Syrian regular forces and Islamist groups over the course of the nearly-five year civil war, said the Hezbollah allegations that Israel was behind the assassination “made light of the FSA’s achievements.”