Israel goes even more bonkers
Israel invades south Lebanon after Hezbollah seizes two soldiers
by Jihad Siqlawi 48 minutes ago
AITA SHAAB, Lebanon (AFP) - Israel has invaded southern Lebanon in a
ground and air assault to retrieve two soldiers snatched by
Hezbollah, the first such assault into the country since a 2000 pullout.
The capture, in an attack on an army outpost on the volatile Lebanese
border, opened a new front in the Middle East after the capture of
another Israeli soldier by Palestinians two weeks ago plunged the
region into chaos.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the abduction amounted to an act of
war, held the government in Beirut fully responsible, and vowed no
negotiations, as aircraft and artillery pounded Hezbollah targets in
southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah, whose Shiite militia was instrumental in forcing Israeli
troops out of Lebanon six years ago and which is sponsored by
Israel’s arch-foes Syria and Iran, demanded the release of Arab
prisoners in exchange for the soldiers.
The morning raid and abduction came amid intense cross-border
exchanges in which at least four civilians were wounded in northern
Israel and another four in south Lebanon, including a correspondent
of Hezbollah television.
Two Lebanese civilians were later killed and five others wounded as
the Israelis mounted their incursion, Lebanese police said.
“The Lebanese government is responsible. Lebanon will pay the price,”
Olmert warned at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi, who had hoped his visit would ease already sky-
high tensions in the region.
“This morning’s events are not a terror attack but the action of a
sovereign state which attacked Israel without any reason,” he added.
“Israel will react in a decisive way so that those responsible for
the attack will pay a high and painful price,” vowed the premier, who
is facing his second crisis over captive servicemen in barely a
fortnight.
Clearing his schedule, Olmert has called an emergency cabinet meeting
for 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) as the military called up a rapid-reaction
division of 6,000 troops, headed for Israel’s northern border.
Hezbollah earlier announced that its military wing had captured the
two soldiers in a bid to extract the release of prisoners and detainees.
“To fulfil a promise to free the prisoners and detainees, the Islamic
Resistance captured at 9:05 am (0605 GMT) two Israeli soldiers at the
borders with occupied Palestine,” Hezbollah said.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz confirmed the soldiers were captured in
an operation along Israel’s northern border.
The Shiite militant group, which sits in the Lebanese government and
whose armed wing controls the south of the country, said the two
soldiers “were moved to a safe place”.
As soon as news of the capture was announced, celebratory gunfire
erupted across Beirut’s southern suburbs — a Hezbollah stronghold.
Some residents were also seen distributing sweets to passing motorists.
Israeli troops swiftly crossed the border in the first ground
incursion since the Jewish state ended its 22-year occupation of
south Lebanon in May 2000.
Aircraft were waging aerial attacks as ground and naval artillery
pounded Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, a military spokesman
said.
Lebanese police said Israeli warplanes flew at low and medium
altitude over southern Lebanon and pounded several Hezbollah
positions as well as a bridge in the western sector of the area.
Israel had been on high alert for possible retaliation from Hezbollah
following its threats to kill Hamas militants based in Damascus and
since it sent warplanes over a Syrian presidential palace late last
month.
“We will take Lebanon 20 years back,” Israel’s army chief of staff
Dan Halutz was quoted as saying by the private Channel 10 television.
“We must stop the restraint and the diplomatic dialogue and move to a
serious military move against anyone who is linked and sends these
people,” said Avigdor Yitzhaki, the leader of Israel’s coalition bloc
in parliament.
The return of Israeli troops to the Gaza Strip last week has already
evoked painful memories of the army’s disastrous 1982 invasion of
Lebanon where soldiers became bogged down in a deadly quagmire before
finally leaving.
Wednesday’s flare-up on the northern border came shortly after
Israeli tanks and troops pushed a new offensive in the central Gaza
Strip, killing nine members of the same family in an air strike on a
house owned by a Hamas leader.
The fresh crisis developed even as the situation continued to
deteriorate in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants are still
holding Gilad Shalit, an 19-year-old Israeli corporal seized on June 25.
His capture, which was claimed by three groups including the armed
wing of the governing Hamas, sparked the worst crisis in the region
since the Islamist movement had its cabinet sworn in last March.
In an interview, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said his mediation
efforts for Shalit’s release had been sabotaged by an unnamed party.
In the remarks published Wednesday, Murabak said he had reached a
deal with Israel for “a large number of prisoners” to be released but
added that Hamas came under fresh pressure and the mediation was
scuppered.
Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah have repeatedly urged Hamas
not to release the Israeli soldier, arguing that his capture was the
best bargaining chip for the release of Palestinian and Arab prisoners.
The three groups detaining Shalit in the Gaza Strip have demanded the
release of 1,000 Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and other prisoners.
Israel has so far refused to negotiate and launched a large-scale
operation against the Gaza Strip, killing more than 60 Palestinians
in the past 10 days and pounding the territory’s infrastructure.