Hezbollah missile kills 2 Israeli soldiers
A missile fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an
Israeli military convoy on Wednesday, killing two soldiers in an apparent
retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel that killed six
Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month.
The violence was the deadliest Hezbollah attack against
Israeli forces since a 2006 war between the two sides, reports AP.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would
respond "forcefully" to the attack, and the military launched aerial
and ground assault on Hezbollah positions, including at least 50 artillery
shells according to Lebanese officials. A Spanish peacekeeper was killed in the
border flare-up in southern Lebanon.
In a statement, Hezbollah said its fighters destroyed a
number of Israeli vehicles that were carrying Israeli officers and soldiers and
caused casualties among "enemy ranks." The soldiers' ranks were not
immediately known.
Hezbollah said the attack was carried out by a group calling
itself the "righteous martyrs of Quneitra," suggesting it was in
retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on the Golan Heights on Jan. 18 that
killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general.
Ever since, Israel has braced for a response to the strike,
beefing up its air defenses and increasing surveillance along its northern
frontier.
The Israeli military said an anti-tank missile hit an
Israeli military vehicle near Mount Dov and Chebaa Farms, a disputed tract of
land where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet. The two soldiers were
killed in the strike and seven others were wounded, the military said.
About an hour after the attack, mortars were fired at
several Israeli military locations on Mount Dov and Mount Hermon, the Israeli
military said. No injuries were reported in that attack. The military said it
responded with fire toward Lebanese positions, and evacuated Israeli visitors
from a ski resort in the area.
The flare-up recalled the beginning of the month-long 2006
Israel-Lebanon war, which was sparked by a Hezbollah attack on an Israeli
military vehicle along the border and the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli
soldiers.
The Israeli military said there was no indication of any
Israeli soldiers captured in Wednesday's attack.
But the latest salvos raised the possibility of renewed
fighting along the Lebanese-Israel border, which has remained mostly quiet
since the 2006 war. Since then, Israel has responded with airstrikes and
artillery fire following a number of rocket attacks and shootings, but the
violence has remained contained.
Earlier Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Syria
targeting Syrian army artillery posts in response to two rockets that were
fired from Syria the previous day into the Israeli-held Golan Heights. No
casualties were reported in that exchange of fire.
Two Lebanese officials said the Israeli shelling targeted
the border villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba near the Chebaa
Farms area. By afternoon, residents along the border reported the shelling had
died down but that there were still Israeli aircraft flying overhead.
The Spanish Defense Ministry identified the dead peacekeeper
as Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, 36. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel
Garcia-Margallo told reporters he received a phone call from Israel's
ambassador to Spain, offering condolences.
In a statement, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
said that he conveyed Israel's condolences for the death in a conversation with
his Spanish counterpart.
Families living on the outskirts of the Lebanese villages
fled further within, fearing they'd be hit, said the two Lebanese officials,
who are based in south Lebanon. Celebratory gunfire echoed in Shiite-dominated
areas of Beirut, while in some areas, nervous parents hurried to pick up their
children from school and hunker home.
Sounds of firing were heard near the Israeli village of
Shear Yashuv, and there were plumes of smoke near Mount Dov. Israeli
helicopters flew above and Israeli police and army set up checkpoints on roads
near the border, closing roads briefly.
Netanyahu, speaking at an event in southern Israel, warned
that Israel's enemies would face a fate similar to Hamas, the rulers of the
Gaza Strip who fought a brutal 50-day war against Israel last summer.
"To anyone who is trying to challenge us on the
northern border I suggest looking at what happened here, not far from the city
of Sderot, in the Gaza Strip. Hamas was dealt its heaviest blow ever since its
founding and the Israel Defense Forces is prepared to act forcefully in all
areas," he said.
Israel Ziv, a reserve Israeli general and a former head of
the IDF's Operations Directorate, told reporters that the situation was
"flammable" and that Israel should work to "contain" the
situation.
"We could find ourselves in a war that does not belong
to Israel," he said.
"I do believe that Israel understands that it needs to
contain it," he said, added Israel should not take any "steps that
would pull us into the chaotic situation in Syria."
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