Hizbullah reported an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon on Tuesday, but the IDF denied the reports, Israel Radio stated.
Hizbullah operatives carry their weapons as they walk in Halta village in southern Lebanon [file].
Photo: AP , AP
The border was quiet Tuesday morning, but the high level of alert in the north continued after the IAF attacked the Hizbullah post from which mortars were fired at Israeli towns during the day, Monday.
Army helicopters were circling the area as ground forces patrolled the northern border.
Hizbullah launched a failed attempt to kidnap soldiers Monday in an assault on Mount Dov and the northern town of Rajar and a coordinated mortar and rocket barrage on northern Galilee towns and kibbutzim.
A fierce Israeli response killed four infiltrators and struck at Hizbullah targets in south Lebanon, but at least 12 soldiers were wounded and a house severely damaged in Metulla by Hizbullah mortar fire.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz remarked that the attacks on Monday were the broadest since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon over five years ago. Likewise, he said, Israel's responses were the harshest since then.
Televised image from Hizbullah television station shows aftermath of battle with IDF soldiers.
Photo: Channel 1
He noted Tuesday that Hizbullah posts were hit that had never before been attacked, Israel Radio reported.
Mofaz warned that if attacks like these continued, Israel would exact the price from the perpetrators.
In his own effort to quiet the border following the Hizbullah attacks, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora spoke on Tuesday with Hizbullah leadership and American, French and Russian ambassadors to defuse area tensions.
Due to a dispute over how to voice their condemnation, the UN Security Council failed to issue a statement condemning the Hizbullah attacks. The UNSC conflict centered around a US-Algerian quarrel over the wording of a statement drafted by France, in which Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace were condemned alongside the Hizbullah incursion, according to Israel Radio.
The assault began Monday afternoon and lasted about six hours, during which residents were ordered to shelters. But by Monday night, a tense calm returned to the northern frontier and residents were allowed to return to their homes.
Top security officials met late last night to reassess the situation following one of the most violent Hizbullah attacks on Israel since Israel pulled out of Lebanon five and a half years ago.
Mofaz, speaking from his headquarters in Tel Aviv, said the Hizbullah attack on the northeastern border throughout the afternoon was a coordinated combination of gunfire, mortar fire and kidnap attempt.
"Syrian and Iranian interests are behind this event. Their interest is to escalate the situation in the north to alleviate the pressure off Syria," Mofaz said.
Mofaz said Syria wanted to divert the spotlight focused on President Bashar Assad's regime from its apparent involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The defense establishment, he said, will meet to discuss the attack. "Our aim is to come up with the best solution to provide the residents of northern Israel with the best possible protection," he added.
The attack began with a massive barrage directed against IDF posts on Mount Dov in the afternoon. It quickly spread westward. Shortly after the initial barrage, IDF troops prevented an attempt to infiltrate an outpost on Mount Dov, killing at least one gunman. An officer and soldier were seriously wounded in this apparently botched kidnapping attempt. An unspecified number of soldiers were also lightly wounded in the gun battle. The wounded were evacuated to Haifa's Rambam Hospital.
In nearby Rajar, a village of Alawite Muslims located on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Hizbullah gunmen rode in on motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), Army Radio reported. They opened fire on a building housing the local council. IDF forces intercepted the gunmen and returned fire, killing three.
As gun battles continued around Rajar, the mortar barrages moved westward, targeting Metulla and Kibbutzim Ma'ayan Baruch and Snir.
Hizbullah later extended the fighting across the entire northern border, as mortars landed near the western towns of Nahariya and Shlomi.
As a result of the shelling, residents of the north from the Mediterranean to Mount Hermon were ordered into bomb shelters Monday evening for the first time in years.
A house in Metulla was directly hit by a Katyusha. While family members were in the house at the time, no injuries were reported. Extensive damage was caused to the building.
IDF artillery returned fire alongside IAF air strikes from helicopters. IAF aircraft bombed a number of roads as well as a building used by Hizbullah as a headquarters in southern Lebanon. According to Lebanese security officials in south Lebanon, Israeli warplanes also fired missiles at suspected terrorist hideouts about 500 meters from the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Witnesses in Lebanon told news agencies that they saw over 100 explosions in the area.
Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim, speaking on Channel 1, reiterated Mofaz's analysis that Hizbullah's actions were aimed at releasing pressure from Syria. Analysts said it was an attempt by Syria to use Hizbullah to show the Americans that Damascus had cards too and could put all of northern Israel into bomb shelters and drag Israel into an international conflict with Syria.
An Israeli retaliatory strike against Syria could serve Assad's purposes, as he would appear under attack.
The US government condemned Hizbullah's actions while calling Israel not to escalate the situation.
"We condemn the Hizbullah attacks conducted earlier today along the Blue Line," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, adding that the US had "made it very clear to the Lebanese Government that they need to control the situation in southern Lebanon."
McCormack said that Hizbullah had deliberately initiated the latest provocation only one day before Lebanese Independence Day.
