JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel confirmed that it carried out two air strikes against Palestinian militants based in Lebanon on Sunday in response to a cross-border rocket attack which wounded one of its soldiers.

"In response to the launching of Katyusha rockets at Israel early this morning which hit an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) base in northern Israel and lightly injured an IDF soldier, the IDF has carried out an aerial attack on two terror sites in Lebanon," a statement from the Israeli military said.

"These two command posts are used by terror organizations in Lebanon; one of them was used as a storage facility for weaponry and ammunition.

"The state of Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for any terror attack emanating from its territory, and will respond severely to such attacks," it added.

The strikes came after a rocket salvo hit an Israeli base near the town of Safed, situated some 20 kilometers (150 miles) south of the international border with Lebanon, prompting the army to go on high alert. The wounded soldier was said to have been lightly wounded.

It was the first time rockets launched from Lebanon had hit so far inside the Jewish state.

The confirmation of the air raids came after Lebanese police said Israeli planes had targeted a base of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in Naameh, some 10 kilometers (six miles) south of the Lebanese capital.

Two air-to-surface missiles were fired at the base, which comprises a network of underground tunnels and has been the target of several past Israeli air strikes.

Israeli fighter bombers had earlier carried out three diving runs to fire two missiles each time at a base in Sultan Yaacub in eastern Lebanon, less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border with Syria, according to the authorities in Lebanon.