One Israeli soldier was killed and six others wounded in two days of bloody clashes in southern Lebanon.
Sgt. Erez Yitzhak, 19, of Netanya, was killed Saturday when his tank was hit by a missile during an attack launched by Hezbollah gunmen on an Israel Defense Force post in the western sector of the security zone.
Three other soldiers were wounded in the attack, one of them seriously.
On Sunday, three more soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, under similar circumstances in the same area.
The soldiers were searching for the Hezbollah gunmen responsible for the previous day’s attack when their tank was struck by a missile.
Israeli air force jets Sunday bombed Hezbollah targets in the eastern sector of the security zone.
The fighting in Lebanon took place amid positive messages from Israel and Syria that their long-stalled negotiations would soon resume.
Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa issued statements saying that the talks would resume by the beginning of 1997.
The talks were suspended in March after Syria failed to condemn a series of Hamas suicide bombings launched at the time in Israel.
Speaking on Saturday night in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he believed that the talks could resume by January, if not sooner.
Israel will pursue peace “not only with the Palestinians, but with Syria. For this reason, I was very pleased to hear the declarations of the Syrian foreign minister,” he said in an address at the opening of the Jerusalem Business Conference.
Sharaa had said a day earlier that talks between Israel and Syria “would likely resume at the beginning of 1997.”
“We cannot say when and how the discussions will be resumed, but it is highly likely that the peace process will be accelerated in the beginning of next year,” Sharaa said after a meeting with his French counterpart, Herve de Charette.
The Syrian diplomat stressed that Damascus’ position had not changed and that talks must be based on the principle of land for peace.
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