Israel hits back after Hizbollah kills teenager
( 2003-08-11 08:43) (Agencies)
Israeli warplanes bombed an anti-aircraft battery on the edge of a south Lebanon village in retaliation for shelling by Lebanese guerrillas that killed an Israeli teenager, the army said.
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| Israeli soldiers search the scene where an anti-aircraft shell fired by Lebanese guerrillas killed one person in the northern Israeli town of Shlomi on August 10, 2003. Israeli warplanes raided the outskirts of a south Lebanon border village after an anti-aircraft shell fired by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah killed one person in Israel, Hizbollah's television said. [Reuters] |
The air strikes on Sunday were followed later by Israeli warplanes breaking the sound barrier over Beirut, shaking buildings and setting off car alarms, eyewitnesses said.
Israel called the air raids a "warning signal" after the 16-year-old Israeli was killed and four others were wounded when rockets fired by Hizbollah Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas hit a shopping center in the northern border town of Shlomi.
It was the first fatality from Hizbollah shelling of northern Israel since the Jewish state withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation under daily guerrilla attacks by Hizbollah forces.
"We heard a loud explosion and I saw shrapnel flying...Two teenagers were wounded in the first explosion. I got under a truck so the shrapnel from the second shell wouldn't hit me," witness Shimon Megira told reporters after the Hizbollah attack.
Tension has heightened along the border in recent days after Hizbollah, which is sponsored by Syria and Iran and controls southern Lebanon, fired salvos of rockets and mortar bombs at an Israeli military post in a disputed border area on Friday.
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| The father (L) no name given, of a 16-year-old boy that was killed by a shell fired by Hezbollah from across the Lebanese border into Israel sits in shock shortly after learning of his son's death, while other cry next to him, in the nothern Israeli town of Shlomi, a few kilometers from the Lebanese border Aug. 10, 2003. Israeli security sources said three anti-tank shells were fired and exploded in the center of the town. Hezbollah said in Lebanon that it had fired anti-aircraft shells at Israeli fighter jets flying over southern Lebanon. Four other Israelis were injured.[AP] |
Israel lodged a complaint with the United Nations for that attack and officials in Jerusalem warned that Lebanon and its main power-broker Syria would be held responsible if they failed to rein in the Lebanese guerrilla group.
The United Nations responded to Sunday's violence by calling for all governments that have influence on Hizbollah "to deter it from any further actions which could increase the tension in the area." It also called on Israel to exercise restraint.
"We have no intention of escalation. This was a pinpoint, targeted response against the gun that fired those shells," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin told CNN.
SHELLS FIRED
Residents in Lebanon said the Israeli warplanes struck the outskirts of Tair Harfa village and the nearby Tellat al-Kharba area. They said troops also fired five shells near the Kfar Shouba town. There were no reports of casualties in Lebanon.
The recent flare-up along the border, which had been quiet since January, followed a vow by Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to retaliate for the killing of a Hizbollah operative in a car bomb attack in Beirut which he blamed on Israel.
Nasrallah also recently threatened to kidnap more Israelis unless there was a breakthrough in stalled prisoner swap talks.
At the shopping center in Shlomi -- within sight of a Hizbollah watchtower on a hill in south Lebanon -- shrapnel pierced the windshield of a car and tore through a park bench.
"That's where they're firing from," a resident said, pointing at the hill overlooking the town.
In Beirut, Hizbollah threatened more anti-aircraft attacks unless Israel halted airforce flights in Lebanese airspace.
"If the Israelis don't want to hear the sound of anti-aircraft rounds that annoy and scare them, they must stop the air attacks...Then they will not hear these sounds," Hizbollah spokesman Sheikh Hassan Izzedine told Reuters.
Israeli military officials said Hizbollah had not aimed the shells at aircraft but rather deliberately fired them at Shlomi.
"Hizbollah fired shells under the guise of anti-aircraft fire when in fact there were no Israeli aircraft that had crossed the border into Lebanon," the army said in a statement.
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