Israel Bombs Lebanon

Lebanon complains to UN about Israeli air strike

Defense minister calls airspace violations 'blatant attack on sovereignty'

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, May 07, 2004

Lebanon complained to the United Nations on Thursday about Israeli overflights and an Israeli airstrike a day before on a suspected Hizbullah hideout in southern Lebanon, the Foreign Ministry said.

Less than 12 hours after Wednesday's raids, Israeli troops intensified their mobile patrols along the border with Lebanon while Israeli radio reported in the morning that the army thwarted an attempted infiltration from the Lebanese side.

Trucks were seen transporting sand facing the town of Abbassieh and in the Western sector, observed the other side of the border at the Zarheet gate.

Residents of Shebaa and Kfar Shuba said Israeli soldiers sprayed the Kfar Shuba hills with machine gun fire.

Meanwhile, UNIFIL personnel patrolled the area along the Blue Line.

The air strike staged by Israel Wednesday came shortly after Hizbullah anti-aircraft guns fired at Israeli warplanes over Lebanon.

Israel said the Hizbullah shells landed in an Israeli border community. There were no casualties, but Israel accused Hizbullah of deliberately aiming at targets on its territory under cover of anti-aircraft fire.

The airstrike, which involved four missiles, was the first on Lebanon since March.

Lebanon has repeatedly complained to the United Nations about Israeli overflights. Hizbullah has made it policy to retaliate by firing at the planes. Some of the anti-aircraft shells land across the border in Israel.

In its complaint to the UN, the Foreign Ministry said Lebanon "reserves its right to retaliate" for Israeli actions.

Lebanese Defense Minister Mahmoud Hammoud said on Thursday that Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace were a "blatant attack on Lebanon's sovereignty."

He called on the UN Security Council to stop them.

An Israeli radio report on a foiled Hizbullah attack Thursday dawn was based on Israeli military sources, who said that Israeli troops opened fire on "suspicious figures carrying equipment" who were approaching their position in the Shebaa Farms area, which lies where the Israeli, Lebanese and Syrian borders meet.

"The soldiers most likely foiled an imminent attack against their position," the source said, adding however that no fire was returned.

The UN House in Beirut issued a statement Wednesday expressing "great dismay" over the border tension.

Southern Lebanon has been largely quiet since Israel withdrew its forces from the area in May 2000 after an 22-year occupation. However, Hizbullah has repeatedly clashed with Israeli soldiers in the Shebaa Farms area, which Lebanon and Syria say is Lebanese, but Israel says it is Syrian and its fate is linked to the Syrian Golan Heights that were occupied by Israel in 1967.