Reprisal by Hezbollah kills 2 Israeli soldiers

Israeli soldiers treat a wounded comrade Wednesday near the border with Lebanon after a missile fired by Lebanese Hezbollah militants struck a convoy.
Israeli soldiers treat a wounded comrade Wednesday near the border with Lebanon after a missile fired by Lebanese Hezbollah militants struck a convoy.

SHEAR YASHUV, Israel -- Missiles fired by the Lebanese Hezbollah group struck an Israeli military convoy Wednesday, killing two soldiers in an apparent retaliation for an airstrike attributed to Israel that killed six Hezbollah fighters in Syria earlier this month.

photo

AP

Israeli soldiers secure the border with Lebanon on Wednesday where anti-tank missiles struck an Israeli military convoy earlier in the day.

The violence, which also left a U.N. peacekeeper dead, was the deadliest Hezbollah attack against Israeli forces since a 2006 war between the two sides.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would respond "forcefully" to the attack, and the military launched aerial and ground assaults 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 readied for a response to the strike, beefing up its air defenses and increasing surveillance along its northern frontier.

The Israeli military said five anti-tank missiles hit the convoy 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.

That barrage was answered by dozens of artillery shells fired into Lebanon. Israeli military officials said their forces launched "aerial and ground strikes at Hezbollah operational positions."

At U.N. headquarters in New York, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the U.N. peacekeeper, a Spaniard, was killed in crossfire after rockets were fired at Israeli positions and Israeli forces responded. He said the cause of death was under investigation.

However, Spain's ambassador to the U.N. blamed Israel for the death of the peacekeeper, identified as 36-year-old Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo.

"It was because of this escalation of violence, and it came from the Israeli side," Spanish Ambassador Roman Oyarzun Marchesi told reporters at U.N. headquarters.

He did not elaborate. However, Lebanese security officials said earlier that the peacekeeper was killed by Israeli shelling that struck near a U.N. base inside Lebanon. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The Security Council, meeting in an emergency session, condemned the peacekeeper's death in the strongest terms and offered its deepest sympathies. In a statement, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he conveyed Israel's condolences for the death in a conversation with his Spanish counterpart.

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.

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 after a number of rocket attacks and shootings, but the violence has been 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.

Families living on the outskirts of the Lebanese villages fled farther 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.

"The tension in the north is very tricky. It's a very flammable situation," said Maj. Gen. Israel Ziv, a reserve officer in the Israeli army and former chief of operations.

"Israel has to contain it, to defend our interests, but not get drawn in" to the Syrian battlefields, Ziv said.

The fact that Hezbollah attacked Israeli troops, rather than Israeli population centers near the border, may make Israel less likely to respond harshly. But the death of two Israeli soldiers might also bring further Israeli action at a time when Hezbollah, distracted by its fight in Syria, could be weakened.

Some analysts estimate that as many as 1,000 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Syria, while others put that number in the hundreds. Hezbollah does not disclose such information, but its losses in Syria are widely believed to have been significant.

"Hezbollah is stretched thin because of Syria. Even if it were not in Syria, that doesn't mean that Hezbollah would want a major escalation with Israel," said Hilal Khashan, a professor at the American University of Beirut. "The Israeli shelling in the south isn't terribly intense. So I don't think this will lead to a major conflagration."

A Lebanese political analyst who has close ties with senior Hezbollah officials described the latest attack as "a trap set by Hezbollah."

"It's important to note that Hezbollah's first statement [on Wednesday's attack] was called Communique No. 1, which means that it is signaling that it is ready to fight more," said the analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the tense situation.

Netanyahu warned Hezbollah not to escalate.

"I suggest that all those who are challenging us on our northern border, look at what happened in Gaza," he said, referring to the 50-day war between Israel and the Islamist militant movement Hamas, which left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead and swaths of Gaza in ruins last year.

Information for this article was contributed by Ariel Schalit, Zeina Karam, Daniel Estrin, Tia Goldenberg, Diaa Hadid and Alan Clendenning of The Associated Press and by William Booth, Hugh Naylor and Suzan Haidamous of The Washington Post.

A Section on 01/29/2015

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