- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Hizbollah
guerrillas killed an Israeli soldier on the Lebanon border on Monday in
an attack that Israel seized upon as an example of why it is rebuffing
peace feelers from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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- The incident raised tensions along the border and the
possibility of Israeli reprisals.
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- Hizbollah said its guerrillas fired an anti-tank missile
at an Israeli bulldozer which had crossed into Lebanon, destroying it.
The Israeli army said one soldier was killed and another seriously wounded.
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- Major-General Benny Gantz, chief of Israel's northern
command, said the bulldozer crossed an Israeli security fence to clear
bombs planted by the Syria-backed Hizbollah but operated short of the international
frontier.
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- Gantz called the incident "very serious." Asked
by Reuters in a telephone interview about possible Israeli retaliation,
he said: "We are weighing our steps."
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- He did not elaborate but noted Lebanon permitted Hizbollah
to deploy along the border and the group has "a Syrian patron that
enables it to operate." Israel Radio said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz
would hold consultations on Tuesday on possible military action.
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- Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, denies it controls
Hizbollah, which considers Israel's 2000 troop withdrawal from southern
Lebanon as incomplete.
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- "It's very clear that Assad speaks from both sides
of his mouth, through the art of duplicity at its best: On the one hand,
overtures of peace to Israel, on the other hand, continued support of its
proxy, Hizbollah, to attack Israel," said Raanan Gissin, a spokesman
for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
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- "There can't be terrorist activity from Lebanon
and peace negotiations with Syria," Gissin said.
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- SYRIAN PEACE OVERTURE
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- Last December, Assad challenged Sharon in a New York
Times interview to resume peace talks over the future of the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights from the point where they left off when they collapsed in
2000.
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- © Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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