BEIRUT: Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Tuesday that security forces have discovered new leads in their investigation of the launch of rockets from south Lebanon toward Israel in recent months.

Charbel first disclosed the investigation’s progress during a tour of police stations over the weekend, when he was reported as saying that the ISF has new and important leads on attacks against the peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon.

“What I meant in my statement regarding important information on attacks against UNIFIL is that there is information that could help us find those who fired rockets inside UNIFIL’s area of operation,” Charbel clarified in a statement from the ministry Tuesday.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 ended the 34-day war in 2006 between Lebanon and Israel and called for an end to armed forces other than the Lebanese government and UNIFIL between the Blue Line and the Litani River.

But in recent months, a number of rockets have been launched from south Lebanon, the first incidents of their kind along the border in two years.

At least one rocket was fired in November from south Lebanon, hitting the western Galilee region.

The rocket launch was followed by a roadside bomb that wounded five French peacekeepers near the southern city of Tyre.

In a separate attack, a Katyusha rocket launched from the south’s Wadi al-Qaissiya in December fell short of Israel, landing in the Lebanese border town of Houla. One Lebanese woman was wounded in the attack.

The incidents were condemned by Lebanese officials and UNIFIL, as well as by Hezbollah.

“This is the third incident involving serious security breaches south of the Litani River in a period of two weeks. These instances show that despite all our efforts there continue to be weapons and hostile armed elements ready to be used in our area of operations,” UNIFIL Commander Maj. Gen. Alberto Asarta said in a statement hours after the Houla incident.

Charbel has denied that members of Al-Qaeda have made their way into Lebanese territory, a claim Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn and others have made, but he linked the recent spike in security incidents in the country to unrest in Syria.

According to interior minister, no terrorist groups have succeeded in infiltrating any of the country’s communities, Christian or Muslim. “All Lebanese communities are moderates and against extremism,” said Charbel in an interview with TeleLiban.

Commenting on a rise in thefts in Lebanon, Charbel said the incidents were not the result of the state’s failure to ensure security, but rather due to criminals exploiting developments in Syria.

Separately, Charbel said that the Lebanese would ultimately discuss the status of Hezbollah’s arms, regardless of developments in Syria.

“It is important to tackle this problem, which we will face regardless of what happens in Syria, because it will cause a problem in Lebanon,” said Charbel, adding that the solution to Hezbollah’s arms lies in the hands of the Lebanese people.