http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060819/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel
It seems Israel thinks that it is free to do whatever it wants despite signing a cease fire. This action is not a smart one IMHO though I suspect the media will ignore these types of provocations if and when this conflict flares up again and the blame will be placed on Lebanon.
Lebanon gives warning after Israeli raid
By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago
Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon Saturday, sparking a fierce clash with militants that killed one Israeli. Lebanon called the raid a "flagrant violation" of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire, while Israel said it was aimed at disrupting arms shipments from Iran and Syria.
Witnesses said Israeli missiles also destroyed a bridge during the raid in what would be the first such airstrike since the cease-fire took effect Monday, ending 34 days of warfare between the two sides.
The fighting did not appear to be escalating, but it highlighted the fragility of the truce as the United Nations pleaded for nations to contribute to an international peacekeeping force due to patrol southern Lebanon.
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr threatened to halt the army's deployment in south Lebanon if the United Nations does not take up the issue of the raid. A stop to the deployment would deeply damage efforts to move in the U.N. force to strengthen the cease-fire.
"If there are no clear answers forthcoming on this issue, I might be forced to recommend to the Cabinet early next week the halt of the army deployment in the south," Murr told reporters after a meeting with U.N. representatives.
In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev defended the raid as a response to "a violation of the cease-fire."
"The U.N. Security Council resolution on Lebanon is very explicit: It says that Hezbollah cannot use the cease-fire to rearm, to receive more missiles and more rockets from Syria and Iran. That was happening, and Israel acted to prevent that from happening," he said.
Regev indicated Israel could conduct further raids until Lebanese and international troops take up positions to prevent Hezbollah from rebuilding its arsenal ? a goal that the U.N. resolution sets as part of a long-term end to the conflict but does not immediately require.
"If the Syrians and Iran continue to arm Hezbollah in violation of the resolution, Israel is entitled to act to defend the principle of the arms embargo," Regev said. "Once the Lebanese army and the international forces are active ... then such Israeli activity will become superfluous."
The first small contingent of reinforcements for the peacekeeping force ? 49 French soldiers ? landed Saturday in inflatable dinghies at the southern Lebanese coastal town of Naqoura, with 200 more expected next week.
But Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown said more countries need to step forward to fill out a vanguard of 3,500 soldiers that the U.N. wants on the ground by Aug. 28 to help ensure the truce holds.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora called Saturday's commando raid a "flagrant violation" of the cease-fire, and said he would take the issue up with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Murr said the raid could spark Hezbollah retaliation, which in turn could lead to Israeli reprisals. He suggested Israel might be trying to provoke a response, so it could have an excuse to attack the Lebanese army. "We will not send the army to be prey in an Israeli trap," he said.
Under the cease-fire terms, Israel has said it will conduct defensive operations if its troops are threatened. But the raid took place far from positions of Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
Such a bold operation suggested Israel was going after a major target ? perhaps to rescue two Israeli soldiers snatched by Hezbollah on July 12, or to try to capture a senior guerrilla official to trade for the soldiers.
Hezbollah has said it wants to exchange the two soldiers for Arab prisoners, but the cease-fire resolution demands Hezbollah unconditionally release the soldiers.
The Israeli commandos were dropped by helicopter on a hill outside the village of Boudai west of Baalbek and apparently were seeking a guerrilla target in a nearby school, Lebanese security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information to the media.
Local media said Sheik Mohammed Yazbeck, a senior Hezbollah official in the Bekaa Valley and a member of the group's Shura council, may have been the target. Yazbeck is a native of Boudai.
Hezbollah TV said the guerrillas foiled the raid. Israel said the force completed its mission, with one officer killed and two soldiers wounded.
Lebanese security officials said three guerrillas were killed and three were wounded. A Hezbollah spokesman said none of his fighters died.
Hezbollah officials at the scene said the Israeli commandos brought two vehicles with them that they used to drive into Boudai. They identified themselves as the Lebanese army when intercepted by Hezbollah fighters in a field, but the guerrillas grew suspicious and gunfire erupted, according to the officials.
Israeli helicopters fired missiles as the commandos withdrew and flew out of the area an hour later, they said.
Witnesses saw bandages and syringes at the landing site outside Boudai, about 10 miles west of Baalbek and 15 miles west of the Syrian border. A bridge was destroyed bridge about 500 yards from the area in what witnesses said was an Israeli airstrike.
The ancient town of Baalbek is the birthplace of the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah. The area in the eastern Bekaa Valley, 60 miles north of the Israeli border, is a major guerrilla stronghold.
On Aug. 2, Israeli commandos targeted the Iranian-funded, Hezbollah-run Dar al-Hikma Hospital in Baalbek, killing 16 people, according to Lebanese police. Israel said that the building was a Hezbollah base, not a hospital, and that its soldiers captured five guerrilla fighters and killed 10 more before withdrawing.
Under the cease-fire, some 15,000 Lebanese soldiers are to move into the south, backed by the beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force known, as Israeli forces withdraw. Once there, the troops are to enforce the cease-fire.
Lebanon has said Hezbollah will not be allowed to show its weapons in public, but has not said whether it will try the more controversial step of disarming the guerrillas.
The Lebanese army has deployed more than 1,500 soldiers in three sectors that Israeli forces have left, and the U.N. force ? currently numbering 2,000 ? has set up checkpoints and started patrolling the areas.
So far, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Italy, France and Finland have promised troops. In an effort to encourage more countries to sign on, Annan said the peacekeeping force would not "wage war" on Israel, Lebanon or Hezbollah militants, addressing a key concern of many countries.
Turkey's government said this week that during the Lebanon war it forced Syria-bound Iranian planes to land and be searched for rockets and other military equipment.
The newspaper Hurriyet reported that two Iranian planes were forced to land at Diyarbakir airport on July 27 and Aug. 8 but that no military equipment was found.
Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Murat Ozcelik said those were not the only planes forced to land. "We inspect Iranian planes upon any suspicion that they may be carrying any weapons," he said, but declined to give details.
It seems Israel thinks that it is free to do whatever it wants despite signing a cease fire. This action is not a smart one IMHO though I suspect the media will ignore these types of provocations if and when this conflict flares up again and the blame will be placed on Lebanon.
