Three Israeli soldiers were wounded Saturday, none seriously, when a shell exploded near their patrol in the northern sector of the south Lebanon security zone. The men were evacuated by helicopter to a hospital in Israel.
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Levy issued separate warnings over the weekend that attempts to disturb the peace along the Israel-Lebanon border would be met by strong measures.
Israel Radio reported last Friday that Rabin has instructed the Israel Defense Force to send more equipment to the South Lebanon Army (SLA) in the security zone north of the Israel-Lebanon border. The equipment is intended to bolster the SLA in the face of attacks from Shiite forces in and north of the zone in recent days.
Israel Radio reported that the Defense Ministry was also considering sending more Israeli troops to the security zone — if the attacks continue and SLA morale sinks further. The 2,000 strong mainly Christian SLA has lost 75 men in the 15 months since Israel withdrew most of its forces from Lebanon.
Israeli security sources confirm that several hundred IDF men still operate in the security zone, mainly in liaison and training capacities with the SLA.
ISRAEL’S QUARREL WITH UN APPEARS TO ABATE
Meanwhile, Israel’s latest quarrel with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) appeared to abate after UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar apparently backed away from charges he made in an official report to the Security Council last week blaming Israel’s presence in the security zone for attacks on a French UNIFIL unit.
A spokesman for Premier Shimon Peres, currently visiting the U.S., said the Secretary General clarified his position at a luncheon with Peres in New York Saturday. Later de Cuellar said in an Israel Radio interview that what he meant was that Israel ought to permit UNIFIL to deploy its forces down to the international border in accordance with its mandate.
“It is very far from my mind to blame Israel for the situation. I would like to make it very clear that (the attacks on UNIFIL troops) are the work of senseless terrorists and extremists. Israel has nothing to do with the problem we are facing right now,” he said.
Rabin told reporters after the Sunday Cabinet meeting that Israel would not object if UNIFIL decided to leave south Lebanon altogether. But Israel would not allow the international force to move south of the area it has patrolled for the past eight years, he said.
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