Hezbollah clashes with Israeli army in south Lebanon

5/21/2005

Hezbollah fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers in the disputed border area of Shebaa Farms on Saturday, after the soldiers fired to prevent what the military claimes was a Lebanese shepherd trying to cross the border.

No injuries were reported.

The Israeli army said its soldiers fired in the air to prevent the shepherd from entering Israel in the Chebaa Farms area, sparking the clash.

Hezbollah, however, said its fighters attacked the Israeli position of Roueissat el-Alam in retaliation for "heavy machine-gun fire" by Israeli forces targeting houses in areas facing the farms.

"The Islamic Resistance attacked the Israeli position ... with the appropriate weapons, scoring direct hits," the statement said.

Hezbollah's version of events was reaffirmed by Lebanese security officials in south Lebanon who said Hezbollah guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells at the Israeli position.

They said the Hezbollah attack came about an hour after Israeli forces opened machine-gun fire on houses in the village of Chebaa, shattering windows and causing damage, the officials said.

An Israeli army spokesman said a total of eight missiles or rockets have been fired from Lebanon over the last hour. No injuries or damage were reported.

"This is a very serious cross-border escalation, especially since we saw a large number of shells being fired last week by Hezbollah. ...This is their attempt to heat up the border," said the army spokesman, who would only comment on condition of anonymity.

Hezbollah and the Israeli army periodically have cross-border clashes in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, where the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel meet. Lebanon claims the area but the United Nations says it is part of Syria.

Earlier this month, the sides had the heaviest clash in months, exchanging barrages of shells and rockets across the Lebanese border. Israeli warplanes destroyed a series of guerrilla positions.

The border tension comes a few days before the fifth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah led a resistance war against Israel's 18-year occupation of that border area culminating in Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.

Hezbollah is under international pressure to disarm, with a UN resolution demanding groups in Lebanon give up their weapons. But Hezbollah has refused, and Lebanese authorities have resisted pressuring Hezbollah, calling it a resistance movement, not a "militia".

The Lebanese army has not deployed in the south, allowing Hezbollah to keep security control there since the Israeli withdrawal.