The IDF has responded with cross-border artillery fire at targets into Lebanon.

IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Moti Almoz said two heavy armored vehicles, one of which was a D-9 bulldozer, were targeted in the Hezbollah attack, describing the explosive that was set off as “relatively large.” “We have opened artillery fire, and created a smoke screen to cover the area. We are in control of the incident,” Almoz said.

At this stage, there are no known injuries among IDF soldiers. Israeli farmers situated close to the Lebanese border have been moved back by the army. Beyond that, Almoz said, there are no special safety instructions for northern residents.

The army is in touch with security coordinators in northern communities, he added. The army is unaware of any cross-border infiltrations at this stage.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack on the IDF vehicles, according to the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen television.

“A cell of the martyr Samir Kuntar detonated the large explosive in Sheba farms area in occupied Lebanon during an IDF patrol causing the destruction of a Hummer and injuring all its passengers,” Hezbollah said.

Lebanese media reported that that the explosive was meant to harm a senior Mossad official.

Lebanese media earlier reported that Israeli shells were fired at the Sheba Farms region near the intersection of the Syrian, Israeli, and Lebanese frontiers.

The news reports north of the border are consistent with eyewitness accounts of Israelis on the Golan Heights who told The Jerusalem Post’s Hebrew-language sister publication Ma’ariv that they heard the roar of artillery fire over the weekend.

According to Lebanese news outlets, the IDF fired 20 shells toward the vicinity of Sheba Farms, which is also known as Mount Dov.

An Israeli military official told Ma’ariv on Sunday that the purpose of the artillery fire was to deter Hezbollah from planting explosives along the border in an effort to avenge the death of Samir Kuntar, the commander who was killed in an airstrike in Damascus. Israel is believed to be behind the killing, though Jerusalem did not confirm this.

“I cleared up this issue with the army after I received numerous complaints from residents,” a security guard in one of the Israeli towns along the border said. “A senior officer in the IDF Northern Command told me that there is a real concern that Hezbollah will plant a bomb along the border under the cover of fog, so whenever we spot suspicious activity we fire an artillery shell in that direction for the sake of deterrence.”

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, speaking a week after the assassination of Kuntar, praised the terrorist who killed four Israelis in an attack in Nahariya in 1979, saying he was an icon for the school of resistance.

“The Israelis are hiding like rats along the border,” he said. They are worried and they should be worried along the border and inside Israel. Their threats will not benefit them.

“The retaliation to Samir’s assassination will inevitably come,” Nasrallah said, adding that Hezbollah would not tolerate the “blood of our jihadist fighters and brothers to be shed anywhere in this world.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday sent an apparent message to Nasrallah in response, warning, “Our enemies should know that we will aggressively retaliate to any attack against us.”

Netanyahu made the comments at an awards ceremony for outstanding Mossad employees just two days after Nasrallah vowed retaliation.

On Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said the military stands ready to face “any challenge” from the North, and Israel’s enemies will pay a dear price if they seek to undermine Israeli security.

“Beyond our borders too, facing the threats we hear to the North, we stand ready for any challenge, and as we have proven in the past, we know how to find and hit all who seek our harm,” Eisenkot said.

The chief of staff warned that “our enemies know that if they try to undermine the security of Israel, they will face severe consequences.”