Hezbollah Targets Israeli Forces With Bomb, Israel Shells South Lebanon
BEIRUT
BY JOHN DAVISON AND SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI
Hezbollah set off a bomb targeting Israeli forces at the Lebanese border on Monday in an apparent response to the killing in Syria last month of a prominent commander, triggering Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon.
Israel has struck its Iran-backed Shi'ite enemy Hezbollah in Syria several times, killing a number of fighters and destroying weapons it believes were destined for the group, whose support for President Bashar al-Assad has been crucial in the country's civil war.
Israel's army said Monday's blast, targeting military vehicles in the Shebaa farms area, prompted Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire. It made no mention of casualties.
Hezbollah said in a statement that the explosive device had been detonated in the Shebaa farms area and carried out by a group whom it named after Samir Qantar, a commander killed in December. The group has accused Israel of killing Qantar in an air strike in Syria, and vowed to retaliate.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, urged both sides to avoid an escalation, saying it had stepped up patrols on the ground after the incident.
In a statement, head of mission Major-General Luciano Portolano urged both sides "to exercise utmost restraint against any provocation."
Lebanese media said Israeli shelling had hit the nearby town of Al Wazzani and other areas, with reports of material damage but no serious injuries.
Witnesses said at least 10 Israeli shells had hit Al Wazzani shortly after the blast.
A Reuters witness said the shelling had stopped later in the day. Al Manar TV reported that calm had returned to the Shebaa area.
An Israeli air strike killed Qantar on Dec. 20 in Damascus, Hezbollah said. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said a week later that retaliation would be inevitable.
Israel stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed Qantar, but welcomed the death of the militant leader, who had been jailed in Israel in 1979 and repatriated to Lebanon in a 2008 prisoner swap.
Hezbollah did not say which role Qantar played in the Syrian conflict, but Syrian state media said he was involved in a major offensive earlier this year in Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Assad in Syria's civil war. The conflict has exacted a heavy toll on Hezbollah, with many hundreds of its fighters killed.
In January last year, an Israeli helicopter attack killed six Hezbollah members including a commander and the son of the group's late military commander Imad Moughniyah. An Iranian general was also killed in that attack.
Two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper were killed later that month in one of the most violent clashes between the two sides since a 2006 war.
Israel and Hezbollah have avoided large scale confrontation along their 80-km (50-mile) frontier since the 34-day war in 2006, which killed 120 people in Israel and more than 500 in Lebanon.
Nasrallah has made repeated threats against Israel since then, part of what is seen as a calibrated policy of deterrence.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam; Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Hezbollah bombs army vehicles on northern border, none hurt
Terror cell named for Samir Kuntar takes responsibility, Israel shells Lebanon in response to attack at Shebaa Farms area near tense border
BY JUDAH ARI GROSS
Times of Israel
January 4, 2016, 4:19 pm 5
An improvised explosive device detonated near an Israeli army bulldozer and another vehicle near the border with Lebanon Monday afternoon, the military said.
No soldiers were hurt in the attack, according to initial reports, which came amid sky-high tensions with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah over the alleged Israeli assassination of a top operative, a known terrorist, last month.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the Monday attack, which it said was carried out by a cell named for Samir Kuntar, killed in an airstrike in Damascus on December 20.
The group claimed it destroyed an IDF Hummer and injured those inside.
However, the army said no one was injured and the vehicles targeted heavy machinery.
The heavy engineering vehicles, including at least one D9 bulldozer, were in the area of the northern border in order to create clear a pathway of obstructions and just such explosive devices, the army said.
Israel fired “targeted” artillery shells into Lebanon in response to the attack, the IDF said in a statement. Some 20 shells were reportedly fired from Shebaa Farms, known in Israel as Har Dov. Nine of them landed near the Lebanese village of al-Wazzani, located just north of the Israel-Lebanon border, the Lebanese news site Naharnet reported.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon received reports of the bombing against Israeli vehicles and the IDF’s return fire, but was still investigating the claims independently with its forces on the ground, UNIFIL’s spokesperson Anrea Tenenti said.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon convened a meeting of security chiefs to discuss the tension on the northern border later Monday. Residents were told to continue with their normal routines.
The IDF has been reportedly firing on positions in southern Lebanon for a number of days, in an attempt to keep terrorists away from the border fence.
The army has instructed residents of Israel’s north to stay in their homes, a spokesperson said.
The IDF has also closed some roads in the area surrounding the border with Lebanon, Hebrew media reported.
Israel has anticipated some form of response by Hezbollah or another terrorist group for the death of Kuntar, who led a raid into northern Israel in 1979 in which four Israelis were killed. He served 29 years in an Israeli prison, before being released as part of an exchange in 2008.
Over the past few days officials said the military wants to prevent Hezbollah operatives from laying roadside bombs in the area, where Israeli army jeeps perform patrols.
On January 28, 2015, two soldiers were killed when an anti-tank missile hit a patrol near Shebaa Farms along the border with Lebanon. The attack came 10 days after an apparent Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah and Iranian operatives in Syria.
BY JOHN DAVISON AND SULEIMAN AL-KHALIDI
Hezbollah set off a bomb targeting Israeli forces at the Lebanese border on Monday in an apparent response to the killing in Syria last month of a prominent commander, triggering Israeli shelling of southern Lebanon.
Israel has struck its Iran-backed Shi'ite enemy Hezbollah in Syria several times, killing a number of fighters and destroying weapons it believes were destined for the group, whose support for President Bashar al-Assad has been crucial in the country's civil war.
Israel's army said Monday's blast, targeting military vehicles in the Shebaa farms area, prompted Israeli forces to respond with artillery fire. It made no mention of casualties.
Hezbollah said in a statement that the explosive device had been detonated in the Shebaa farms area and carried out by a group whom it named after Samir Qantar, a commander killed in December. The group has accused Israel of killing Qantar in an air strike in Syria, and vowed to retaliate.
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, urged both sides to avoid an escalation, saying it had stepped up patrols on the ground after the incident.
In a statement, head of mission Major-General Luciano Portolano urged both sides "to exercise utmost restraint against any provocation."
Lebanese media said Israeli shelling had hit the nearby town of Al Wazzani and other areas, with reports of material damage but no serious injuries.
Witnesses said at least 10 Israeli shells had hit Al Wazzani shortly after the blast.
A Reuters witness said the shelling had stopped later in the day. Al Manar TV reported that calm had returned to the Shebaa area.
An Israeli air strike killed Qantar on Dec. 20 in Damascus, Hezbollah said. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said a week later that retaliation would be inevitable.
Israel stopped short of confirming responsibility for the strike that killed Qantar, but welcomed the death of the militant leader, who had been jailed in Israel in 1979 and repatriated to Lebanon in a 2008 prisoner swap.
Hezbollah did not say which role Qantar played in the Syrian conflict, but Syrian state media said he was involved in a major offensive earlier this year in Quneitra, near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Hezbollah is fighting on the side of Assad in Syria's civil war. The conflict has exacted a heavy toll on Hezbollah, with many hundreds of its fighters killed.
In January last year, an Israeli helicopter attack killed six Hezbollah members including a commander and the son of the group's late military commander Imad Moughniyah. An Iranian general was also killed in that attack.
Two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper were killed later that month in one of the most violent clashes between the two sides since a 2006 war.
Israel and Hezbollah have avoided large scale confrontation along their 80-km (50-mile) frontier since the 34-day war in 2006, which killed 120 people in Israel and more than 500 in Lebanon.
Nasrallah has made repeated threats against Israel since then, part of what is seen as a calibrated policy of deterrence.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and Laila Bassam; Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Hezbollah bombs army vehicles on northern border, none hurt
Terror cell named for Samir Kuntar takes responsibility, Israel shells Lebanon in response to attack at Shebaa Farms area near tense border
BY JUDAH ARI GROSS
Times of Israel
January 4, 2016, 4:19 pm 5
An improvised explosive device detonated near an Israeli army bulldozer and another vehicle near the border with Lebanon Monday afternoon, the military said.
No soldiers were hurt in the attack, according to initial reports, which came amid sky-high tensions with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah over the alleged Israeli assassination of a top operative, a known terrorist, last month.
Hezbollah took responsibility for the Monday attack, which it said was carried out by a cell named for Samir Kuntar, killed in an airstrike in Damascus on December 20.
The group claimed it destroyed an IDF Hummer and injured those inside.
However, the army said no one was injured and the vehicles targeted heavy machinery.
The heavy engineering vehicles, including at least one D9 bulldozer, were in the area of the northern border in order to create clear a pathway of obstructions and just such explosive devices, the army said.
Israel fired “targeted” artillery shells into Lebanon in response to the attack, the IDF said in a statement. Some 20 shells were reportedly fired from Shebaa Farms, known in Israel as Har Dov. Nine of them landed near the Lebanese village of al-Wazzani, located just north of the Israel-Lebanon border, the Lebanese news site Naharnet reported.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon received reports of the bombing against Israeli vehicles and the IDF’s return fire, but was still investigating the claims independently with its forces on the ground, UNIFIL’s spokesperson Anrea Tenenti said.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon convened a meeting of security chiefs to discuss the tension on the northern border later Monday. Residents were told to continue with their normal routines.
The IDF has been reportedly firing on positions in southern Lebanon for a number of days, in an attempt to keep terrorists away from the border fence.
The army has instructed residents of Israel’s north to stay in their homes, a spokesperson said.
The IDF has also closed some roads in the area surrounding the border with Lebanon, Hebrew media reported.
Israel has anticipated some form of response by Hezbollah or another terrorist group for the death of Kuntar, who led a raid into northern Israel in 1979 in which four Israelis were killed. He served 29 years in an Israeli prison, before being released as part of an exchange in 2008.
Over the past few days officials said the military wants to prevent Hezbollah operatives from laying roadside bombs in the area, where Israeli army jeeps perform patrols.
On January 28, 2015, two soldiers were killed when an anti-tank missile hit a patrol near Shebaa Farms along the border with Lebanon. The attack came 10 days after an apparent Israeli airstrike killed Hezbollah and Iranian operatives in Syria.
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