Israel was engaged in a miniwar with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon this week as the Israel Defense Force acted to correct lapses of discipline that resulted in the brutal murders of three recruits at a poorly defended training camp last weekend.
The Shi’ite fundamentalist Hezbollah has been lobbing salvos of Katyusha rockets into Upper Galilee since Sunday, when Israeli gunners killed their leader, Sheik Abbas Musawi, in a carefully planned helicopter attack on his motorcade in southern Lebanon.
The IDF is striking back with heavy artillery fire and aerial bombardment of Hezbollah targets.
For the third consecutive night Tuesday, Upper Galilee residents were forced to seek the safety of bomb shelters as rockets struck the area in a seemingly random pattern.
The night attacks were followed by an unexpected salvo fired into the Galilee panhandle region at noon Wednesday.
Although no casualties were reported and only minor property damage was done, the bombardment has taken a toll. At least seven Israelis were treated for shock Wednesday at an unidentified site.
Sources with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon reported that about 20 rockets hit the southern Lebanon security zone Tuesday night.
The IDF and its allied South Lebanon Army zeroed in on villages in southern Lebanon believed to be used by Hezbollah. Kabrika, Kafra and Yatar villages were abandoned by their residents at 5 a.m. Wednesday after the SLA commander, Gen. Antoine Lehad, warned they were about to be bombarded.
The IDF announced Tuesday night that the air force destroyed a “Hezbollah target” southeast of Jibchit village Tuesday.
The announcement was confirmed by Lebanese sources. They reported a direct hit on the home of the regional Hezbollah leader, Ali Isr e-Din, in Zartar el-Gharbiyeh village. He was away but his daughter was injured, the sources said.
OTHER MILITARY MOVES POSSIBLE
Israelis, meanwhile, are pondering the warning by the IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak, that the IDF would not limit itself to “passive measures” but would pursue those who fired rockets at Israeli civilian centers.
His remarks Tuesday recalled Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon in the spring of 1982, the so-called “Operation Peace for Galilee,” which was supposed to be a limited operation to root out rocket-firing terrorists but escalated into a major war that soon had the IDF fighting on the outskirts of Beirut.
The architect of the Lebanon war, Ariel Sharon, who was Israel’s defense minister at the time and is now housing minister, proposed Wednesday that Israel expand the southern Lebanon security zone beyond its nine- to 12-mile width.
The zone, which stretches snake-like about 50 miles from the Mediterranean coast to the slopes of Mount Hermon, is a legacy of Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon.
It is supposed to serve as a buffer protecting Israel’s northern borders. But its present dimensions are inadequate, according to Sharon.
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