Tair Herfa, Lebanon - A day after militants launched three Katyusha rockets from their village in southern Lebanon into Israel, the people Tair Herfa were fearful that Lebanon could be dragged into a new and devastating war with its neighbour.

Despite the cold and rainy weather, the villagers rose early to monitor news after the United Nations Security Council late Thursday adopted Resolution 1860, calling for a ceasefire to end nearly two weeks of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

The fears of the people of Tair Herfa were raised when unknown militants fired rockets on northern Israel from the outskirts of their village on Thursday. Two people were injured when the rockets hit the coastal city of Nahariya.

"For us here in Tair Herfa, we are prepared for the worst. We lived through this experience in 2006 when Israel launched its aggression against the resistance (Hezbollah)," resident Alia Hammoud, 65, said.

"Israel will have no mercy on Lebanon, because it was defeated in 2006 war," she added.

Hardline Palestinian groups were blamed for the rocket attacks from Lebanon. The militant Shiite Hezbollah movement, a close ally of the Islamist Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, denied any links with the incident.

Around 1,200 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, were killed in Israel's war with Hezbollah in July 2006. Around half of Lebanon's infrastructure was destroyed.

Israel's Gaza offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza had by Friday claimed the lives of at least 776 Palestinians and injured around 3,250. Nine Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians have been killed since the offensive began on December 27.

"The massacres Israel is committing in Gaza, is escalating the tension all over the Arab world ... and this might ignite a new war in this region," Abu Ali, a vegetable vendor, said.

"Oppression causes people to react and this is what is happening in our region," Ali added.

But the elderly man who says he supports Hezbollah stressed that Lebanon should not be used as a platform to fight alone.

"All Arab countries should unite and take a firm decision to fight Israel and not only the Lebanese alone. We do not want to end up fighting a new war with Israel alone," Ali said.

"The Lebanese have paid a dear price alone to liberate their country from the Israeli occupation. It is time for others (Arabs) to stand and fight," he added.

Despite the calm that returned to the area on Friday, Lebanese army checkpoints across the south of the country were stopping all car and verifying the identities of passengers to prevent a repeated incident. UN soldiers stationed in Lebanon also patrolled areas adjacent to the border with Israel.

Since the latest Gaza confrontation began, widespread outrage has engulfed Lebanon, with daily demonstrations to show solidarity with the Palestinian people. But most Lebanese, believe the country should not be drawn into a new war with Israel.

"Expressing solidarity with Gaza does not mean we want some groups to use Lebanese territories as a new battlefront to launch a war with Israel," said Druze MP Marwan Hamadeh.

"The country is still recovering from the July 2006," he noted.

The 2006 war saw Israel launch a wide-scale offensive on Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon after the group captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Thousands from southern Lebanon, including the residents of Tair Herfa, were displaced.

"If there is a new war between Lebanon and Israel, I will stay in the village this time and die inside my house," Ali said.

His sentiments appeared to reflected that of many in the south, who trust Hezbollah and its leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

"Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah is a wise man and he will not do anything to harm Lebanon and its people ... instead he and his movement have liberated our land," Fatima Shaaban, a shop vendor in the southern port city of Tyre said.

Hezbollah's strategy since the war in Gaza started appears focused only mobilizing the Arab masses to support Hamas and the Palestinian people, with speeches by its leaders urging Hamas to fight Israel.

But analysts like Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, believe that "this is a very risky time for the whole region and especially the Lebanese front."