Israeli Bedouin soldier killed by Hezbollah bomb in Lebanon

JERUSALEM, Dec. 8 (JTA) — An Israeli soldier was killed and another was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded during the weekend in southern Lebanon. Mohammed Hujirat, 27, a Bedouin tracker from the Galilee, was killed Saturday while leading a patrol in the eastern sector of the southern Lebanon security zone. Another tracker who was with him suffered light to moderate shrapnel injuries. An initial inquiry conducted by the Israel Defense Force found that the bombs were set a day or two before by members of the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah movement and that the charges were detonated by remote control. Several other explosive devices, which did not go off, were found in the area. The inquiry indicated that the Hezbollah members had come from the nearby Tivnit village. In retaliation, Israeli forces shelled the area, causing the injuries of seven Lebanese civilians. Lebanon filed a complaint against Israel with the United Nations and called for a meeting of the five-nation monitoring group that was established in April to oversee a cease-fire ending cross-border fighting at the time between Israel and Hezbollah. A senior Israeli military source said in response that Hezbollah, not Israel, had violated the truce by opening fire on the IDF from civilian areas. Under the terms of cease-fire, the two sides agreed not to launch attacks from or target civilian areas on either side of the border.