The Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah movement is showing that it has no intention of halting attacks on Israeli soldiers and their allies in southern Lebanon.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah gunmen erupted over the weekend – some two weeks after a cease-fire was achieved – in the security zone.
On Sunday, five Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, in two separate Hezbollah attacks in southern Lebanon.
An Israel Defense Force officer was seriously wounded when an anti-tank rocket fired by Hezbollah hit a patrol in the northeastern sector of the security zone.
In a second incident, four other IDF soldiers were wounded, two moderately and two lightly, by shrapnel from mortar shells fired by members of the Shi’ite Hezbollah movement at an IDF outpost in the area.
The IDF responded by shelling Hezbollah positions north of the security zone. Israeli warplanes planes attacked Hezbollah targets in the eastern sector of the zone.
Last Friday saw the first Hezbollah attack in the security zone since the April 27 cease-fire went into effect. Hezbollah members detonated roadside explosives, killing a soldier from the Israel-allied South Lebanese Army and wounding two others.
Israeli military sources said Hezbollah had resumed its attacks to show that it remained undeterred by the cease-fire agreement.
The agreement bars attacks on Lebanese and Israeli civilian populations, but does not prohibit fighting between Hezbollah and the IDF within the security zone.
Last Friday, diplomats from the five nations responsible for monitoring the cease-fire held their first meeting in Washington.
The five – the United States, Israel, France, Syria and Lebanon – met for three hours, but failed to agree on monitoring arrangements.
The delegates were scheduled to meet again Tuesday.
The Syrian delegate, Ambassador Walid Muallem, said there were still differences over the structure and focus of the group.
Syria and Lebanon reportedly favor an arrangement that would limit the group’s activities to monitoring the military aspects of the cease-fire.
Israel and the United States have reportedly expressed the desire for the group to include economic and political considerations on its agenda.
Syrian officials in Damascus accused Israel over the weekend of trying to turn the monitoring committee into an alternative channel for regional peace talks.
They said the United States should push for a resumption of the Israeli-Syrian negotiations, which were suspended after a wave of suicide bombings in Israel in late February and early March.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
