Anti-tank specialist captured during Lebanon war who faces criminal charges insists he is a soldier.
By DAN IZENBERGhizbullah militia 224.88(photo credit: AP [file])
If the Second Lebanon War was, as Israel has declared, indeed a war, was the IDF waging it against an army or a gang of criminals?
That is one of the questions that have arisen in the trial of three Hizbullah fighters captured on Lebanese territory and brought to Israel for trial.
One of them, Mahmoud Sror, was an anti-tank specialist from Ita al-Shaab, who was deployed in his village to stop an IDF assault. He was captured during the fighting and brought to Israel. Sror claims he is a soldier, and therefore a prisoner of war. Israel says he is a criminal.
He faces trial in Nazareth District Court on criminal charges including being a Hizbullah reservist, carrying weapons without a permit from Israel's Interior Ministry and participating in military training without permission from the Israeli government.
Sror and the other two Hizbullah fighters have informed the court they will not attend their trial, which begins on February 14, on the grounds that they do not want to bestow legitimacy on what they call a "political" trial.
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![hizbullah militia 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/q_auto/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/19374 "hizbullah militia 224.88")