As Rocket Shatters Galilee Peace, Israel, U.S. Warn Beirut It’s Liable

The firing of a Katyusha rocket into the western Galilee on Wednesday – the first such attack on northern Israel in more than six months – drew condemnation from Washington and Jerusalem.

The rocket attack, which damaged an Israeli factory but caused no casualties, was the work of a small Palestinian splinter group opposed to the ongoing Middle East peace process, according to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

More than 10 hours elapsed before Israeli authorities released any information about the attack, and throughout the country citizens were angered by the delay, demanding to know why the information had been withheld.

Rabin, along with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Police Minister Moshe Shahal, condemned the attack, saying Thursday that the Israeli government considered it a breach of an agreement reached in July between Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Palestinian rejectionist groups, particularly the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah movement.

But in an effort to ease tensions, the Israeli government adopted a wait-and- see approach in order to learn whether this was an isolated incident.

“If this is an isolated shell, it’s one thing,” Peres told reporters Thursday. “But if this is a violation of the agreement, it’s a different thing, and we shall judge upon the developments.”

The attack also brought condemnations from the U.S. State Department, which told the Lebanese government it must comply with last summer’s agreement to halt terrorist attacks on Israel.

In late July, Israel launched a weeklong shelling of southern Lebanon, driving about 250,000 Lebanese from their homes, in retaliation for Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.

As part of the cease-fire brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, a verbal understanding was reached that Hezbollah would refrain from firing Katyusha rockets into Israel. Israel, in turn, agreed to cease its artillery bombardments of terrorist strongholds and villages north of the security zone it had established as a buffer to protect its northern border.

Syria, which holds sway over the Palestinian rejectionist groups operating in southern Lebanon, had also given its tacit backing to the cease-fire arrangement.

Although Hezbollah was initially considered responsible for Wednesday’s attack, Rabin said Thursday that it was of a small splinter group calling itself “Black September 13” – a reference to the date of the signing last year of the Palestinian self-rule accord in Washington.

Rabin referred to the attackers as “a marginal group.”

“It doesn’t at all compare to the size of the Hezbollah threat, and the Israeli army will find the way to deal with this matter,” he said.

The Lebanese government issued a statement Wednesday saying it had been told by the United States that the fighting in southern Lebanon represented a serious threat to regional peace efforts. The American warning was issued by Christopher, along with the U.S. ambassador in Beirut.

According to Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Yossi Beilin, who met with Christopher and other State Department officials Thursday in Washington, said the secretary had told him the United States was pressing Lebanon to abide by its word.

Christopher “said the United States will insist on abiding by and complying with the agreement, which was achieved between us and the Lebanese in the summer of ’93 and would do whatever possible in order to prevent a continuation of the development which occurred yesterday,” said Beilin.

During Thursday’s briefing, State Department spokesman Mike McCurry confirmed that the United States had its views “very clear to governments in the region.”

Meanwhile, Israel Radio reported that it had received an unprecedented number of calls during a phone-in program, with callers across the country angrily asking why the authorities had withheld information about the attack for 10 hours.

Israel Defense Force Officials with the Northern Command said those responsible for publicizing such information had waited to be completely certain that a hostile missile had been involved. In a recent incident, an explosion of what had initially been thought a Katyusha missile turned out to be a misfired IDF mortar shell.

A Defense Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying that the decision when to publish the details of the attack was timed to enable the Israeli ambassadors in Washington and at the United Nations to have a chance to condemn the attack most effectively.