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Israel weighs bomb shelters, nationwide
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
TEL AVIV — Clashes between Israel's military and Hizbullah have intensified over the last few days as Hizbullah
operatives returned to southern Lebanon. So far, Hizbullah and Israeli
troops have exchanged light weapons fire.
On Tuesday, a senior Israeli minister, Rafi Eitan, called on the
government to prepare bomb shelters throughout the country. Eitan said Iran,
the sponsor of Hizbullah, would target Israel in any confrontation with the
West over Teheran's nuclear weapons program.
"We have to prepare the entire country for a missile attack, prepare the
civilian apparatus for this, something we have never done before," Eitan
said.
On Monday, Hizbullah sought to attack Israeli positions at Shama, about
four kilometers north of the Israeli-Lebanese border. Israeli forces opened
fire and three Hizbullah fighters were killed. Military sources said no
Israeli soldiers were hurt, Middle East Newsline reported.
"We're expecting the fighting to become increasingly worse over the next
few days amid the power vaccum," an officer said.
The Shama battle was said to have been the most serious since the
ceasefire in Lebanon began on Aug. 14. Hizbullah has fired mortars and other
projectiles toward Israeli troops over the last week.
Hours earlier, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat daily reported that
Iran and Syria have decided to rearm Hizbullah for another war with Israel.
The Saudi-owned daily said a huge cache of weapons arrived in Damascus
for delivery to Hizbullah positions in Lebanon.
Israel's military has sought to block Iranian weapons shipments from
Syria. On Aug. 19, an Israeli special operations force operated in Baalbek
near the Syrian border in what the military said was a successful mission to
stop the weapons flow.
"I want to tell you that the anti-tank weapons which took the lives of
very many of our soldiers were supplied by Syria," Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert said. "I can tell you that Syria is a committed, aggressive member of
the axis of evil, which starts in Iran, goes through [Syria] with all the
supplies of arms and ammunition, the means of death and destruction that the
terror organizations use against Israel."
Copyright © 2006 East West
Services, Inc.
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