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Israel expects more Hizbullah attacks from Lebanon

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Tuesday, July 3, 2001

JERUSALEM Ñ Israel expects Hizbullah to continue attacks on military positions along the border with Lebanon.

Israeli officials said the weekend attacks and retaliations mark the start of an escalation launched by Hizbullah with the approval of Iran and Syria. The officials said Hizbullah is prepared to initiate attacks and then respond to any Israeli retaliation.

"This is not the first we're going to hear of this," an Israeli military source said. "We are going to hear a lot more from Hizbullah over the next few weeks."

But other military sources said they don't expect Hizbullah to widen the conflict to include Israeli communities in the north. Hizbullah has deployed a network of missiles and rockets along the border with Israel and some of these weapons can strike the outskirts of Haifa.

The assessment is that Hizbullah will seek to limit attacks on Israeli soldiers along the border. But the attacks could expand from the current area of Hizbullah attacks Ñ the Shebaa plateau.

"Syria enables the accelerated arming of Hizbullah in Lebanon," an Israeli Cabinet statement said.

During the latest Israeli attack on a Syrian radar station on Sunday, two Syrians and a Lebanese soldier were injured. The Israeli air raid included F-16s and the upgraded F-4 Phantom jet.

"We had no alternative but to respond," Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.

The Hizbullah responded with an anti-tank and mortar salvo toward Israeli positions at Shebaa. Nobody was injured.

Israeli military sources said the latest attack on a Syrian radar position was again meant to warn Damascus against supporting Hizbullah attacks. The sources said Israel has ended its policy of targeting Lebanese civilian installations Ñ such as power stations Ñ in response to Hizbullah attacks. This policy began in 1993 during the administrations of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak.

The sources said Israel does not seek an escalation and hopes that Damascus will act against Hizbullah. For their part, Syrian sources said Damascus will retaliate in a place and time determined by the Assad regime.

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