AP Mideast Lebanon Israel
UPDATE:
debkafile’s military sources report indications in Beirut and Jerusalem that, despite UNIFIL’s call on both sides to exercise “maximum restraint,” the incident which flared at 12:30 p.m. may not be over.
On the Israeli side, helicopters, tanks and artillery are in action and all Lebanese units in the south have gone on full alert since President Michel Suleiman, at two p.m. called on the Lebanese people to be prepared to lay down their lives to defend their country and UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which terminated the 2006 war with Israel.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu urgently consulted with security chiefs on Israel’s response to what it sees as Lebanese aggression. The possibility that the Lebanese soldiers who began the shooting were Hizballah gunmen disguised in military uniform is under investigation.
The incident flared when they ordered Israeli troops to stop installing a surveillance camera on the border fence near Kibbutz Misgav-Am opposite the Lebanese village of Adeisseh village. They accused the Israeli soldiers of encroaching on Lebanese territory. When the Israelis replied they had kept to their own side of the border and refused to back down, the Lebanese started shooting.
According to debkafile’s military sources, the clash was staged deliberately by the Lebanese side to divert attention from the radical change in the balance of power in Beirut as a result of President Bashar Assad’s abrupt switch of patronage from Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah to Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri.
To read debkafile’s earlier article on the events leading up to this outbreak, click here.
It coincided with a ‘major speech’ expected later Tuesday by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hizballah, and came a day after six missiles were fired towards the Jordanian port of Aqaba and Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, killing one Jordanian.
Update: At least 3 Lebanese soldiers killed in border clash
By JPOST.COM STAFF
It has been reported that at least three Lebanese soldiers were killed in the clashes that erupted between the IDF and LAF at the northern border Tuesday.
The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that there were harsh violations of Resolution 1701 in reaction to exchanges of fire between the IDF and Lebanese army forces on the Lebanese border. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman instructed Israel’s UN representative to submit a complaint UN secretary general and security council.
Lieberman said that Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for the very serious incident.
An Israeli tank was reported to have fired on a Lebanese armored vehicle in the border town of Adaysseh, setting it on fire and killing at least three soldiers inside of it.
Ynet reports: Explosions rock northern border Tuesday as IDF clashes with Lebanese forces; three Lebanese troops, journalist said to killed; Northern residents in Israel report major blasts, UNIFIL urges both sides to show restraint.
Jpost reports that, “Exchange of fire between IDF and Lebanese troops prompts both Israel and Lebanon to cite violations of UN resolution 1701; FM submits complaint to UN; says Lebanese gov’t is responsible.”
n a statement, the Israeli government blamed Lebanon for provoking the clash, saying it took a particularly grave view of the action as IDF soldiers had been working in complete coordination with UN peacekeepers.
“Israel sees this incident as a violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, one of a long line of violations, first of which is the massive arming of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon,” the statement read. “Israel views the government of Lebanon as responsible for this grave event and warns of possible consequences if these violations continue.”
Also on Tuesday there were reports that a Katyusha rocket fired from Lebanon struck the northern Galilee – but police dispatched to the area could find no trace of an impact.
Residents living close to border reported hearing several loud explosions.
Aharon Valensi, head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council, told television news that residents of the area had been told to take cover in bomb shelters.
“We’re ready,” he said. “The IDF prepared us for situations like this and we just hope that it is only a localized incident.”
Israeli military engineering units maintain a security fence along the border with southern Lebanon. The region has traditionally been a stronghold for Hezbollah but regular Lebanese troops returned to the area in 2006 following Israel’s summer war with the Shi’a militant group.
A 12,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, is also deployed in the area.
Following news of the incident, UNIFIL issued a statement calling on both armies to show “maximum restraint” and prevent an escalation of hostilities.
Tuesday’s clash follows rocket attacks on Monday on the southern city of Eilat and neighboring Aqaba in Jordan, in which a Jordanian citizen was killed and five others were injured.
