Updated 12:50
Two rockets have reportedly been launched from southern Lebanon towards Israel during the fourth day of Israel's military offensive on Hamas militants in Gaza.
Lebanon's national news agency said the missiles were launched from the Hasbaya area towards "occupied territories" at 6:30am local time.
Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner confirmed that a projectile had struck Israel's northern border, prompting the military to respond with artillery fire. Israel has been bombarded by missiles from Gaza in recent days, although these are thought to be the first launched from Lebanon.
Lt. Col. Lerner said it was unclear whether the attack was "symbolic or something more substantial". It is not clear who was responsible.
The rocket fire came four days into an Israeli offensive on Hamas militants, who control the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is warning airlines to stay away from Israel's main airport, which it is intending to fire rockets at. Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, has remained open despite rocket fire.
Israeli airstrikes killed six Palestinians in the early hours of Friday morning. Five of them, including a child (7), died in a strike on the home of an apparent Islamist militant in Rafah.
The latest fatalities bring the total death toll from Israel's Operation Protective Edge to more than 80.
Israel says the operation is a defensive measure designed to halt persistent Hamas rocket attacks.
Air raid sirens sounded again across Israel on Friday forcing civilians to take shelter. They were also heard for the first time in the northern city of Haifa as rockets sent from Gaza reach deeper inside the country.
No Israeli fatalities reported
A spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces said 407 mortars and rockets have struck a number of cities in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, since the start of the operation on Tuesday.
A further 118 rockets were intercepted by its Iron Dome missile defence system.
No Israeli fatalities have been reported since the operation began. The exchange of fire marks the heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas since an eight-day battle in November 2012.
The Israeli cabinet has said it may now send in ground troops and has authorised the call-up of as many as 40,000 reservists.
Obama says the US is willing to help negotiate truce
With no end to the violence in sight, US President Barack Obama has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the US would be willing to help negotiate a truce.
Mr. Obama said he was concerned the fighting could escalate and "called for all sides to do everything they can to protect the lives of civilians" the White House said.
"The United States remains prepared to facilitate a cessation of hostilities, including a return to the November 2012 ceasefire agreement".
Tovah Lazaroff - the deputy managing editor of Jerusalem Post - told Newstalk Breakfast how this US offer has been received.
The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned the UN Security Council of the “risk of an all-out escalation in Israel and Gaza” and made an urgent appeal for maximum restraint, saying his "paramount concern is the safety and well-being of all civilians, no matter where they are".
"Today, we face the risk of an all-out escalation in Israel and Gaza, with the threat of a ground offensive still palpable – and preventable only if Hamas stops rocket firing" he told an urgently-called meeting of the Security Council on the Middle East yesterday, which he told reporters yesterday that he had requested.
He said over the past several days, the Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired more than 550 rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel, and the Israeli Defence Forces have launched more than 500 airstrikes on Gaza.
"It is now more urgent than ever to try to find common ground for a return to calm and a cease-fire understanding" he said.
"Once again civilians are paying the price for the continuation of conflict,” Mr. Ban said. "My paramount concern is the safety and well-being of all civilians, no matter where they are. It pains me – and it should pain us all – to be reliving circumstances that are all too reminiscent of the two most recent wars in Gaza".
