The grandmother of the killed Lebanese boy, cries in his bedroom

TYRE, Lebanon, October 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A six-year-old Lebanese boy was killed and one injured in another wave of Israeli shell fire near the border with Israel early Tuesday, October 7, according to Lebanese police.

Denying responsibility of the attack, Israel said it had not fired into the area where Ali Nader Yassin was killed and his brother Ahmed, 8, was wounded in the head, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

However, Lebanese police said an Israeli shell had hit the boys' home in the village of Houla, five kilometers (three miles) from the border.

Israeli gunfire hit a Lebanese bus traveling on a normally quiet road close to the border between the villages of Adayseh and Kfarkila Monday, no casualties were reported as only minor damage was caused by the shooting, Lebanese police sources said.

The Israeli troops opened up with light machine guns for some 10 minutes, the sources added.

A tanker truck belonging to the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was hit by three Israeli bullets, prompting an inquiry into the incident, an officer with the peacekeeping force said.

There was no immediate explanation for the gunfire, which came amid high tension on the border following a weekend Israeli air strike on neighboring Syria.

In a separate incident further east in the occupied Shebaa Farms district, six Israeli shells landed on the border close to the village of Shebaa causing no casualties, after helicopters had fired flares over the area, Lebanese police said.

An Israeli drone was also seen, while U.N. peacekeepers sent out patrols.

Israel claimed a number of mortar bombs had been fired across the border from Lebanon overnight, striking near the town of Kiryat Shmona but causing no casualties.

In a statement issued in Beirut, Hezbollah denied "any responsibility" for the exchange of gunfire.

The new escalation came a day after Israeli planes attacked a camp close to the border between Syria, Israel and Lebanon, a target "deep inside Syrian territory".

Israeli Soldier Killed

Meanwhile, an Israeli soldier was killed in firing across the border between the two countries near the town of Metulla on Monday.

He was the first Israeli casualty on the northern border since August, according to the BBC online news service.

In another development, Israeli officials warned Lebanon and Syria to rein in what they termed "anti-Israeli militants" or face an escalation in the area.

"Syria is responsible for what's happening here, by letting the terror groups act freely," said Major General Benny Gantz, according to the BBC.

Syria has been pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel for the attack as it introduced a draft resolution Sunday that "strongly condemns the military aggression carried by Israel against the sovereignty and territory of the Syrian Arab Republic ... in violation of the charter of the United Nations, the rules and principles of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions."

The draft also calls on the Security Council to declare the attack a violation of the 1974 disengagement and to demand Israel not to act in a way that threatens regional security.

The U.N. Security Council on Sunday, October 5, delayed voting on the draft, sufficing to adjourn the debate without taking a vote.

Tense But Calm

Following the clashes, the Israeli-Lebanese border area was tense Tuesday, as analysts expected all parties to keep the tension at a low-level.

The tensions flared late Monday after Israeli Warrant Officer David Solomonov was killed by gunfire from across the border, according to the Israeli military.

But the Lebanese group Hezbollah, normally quick to claim responsibility for any attack on Israel, has denied carrying this one out and a Lebanese official said that while fire was exchanged, it was all started by Israel 

No warnings have been issued to civilians, who wnet about their business Tuesday almost as if nothing had happened.

Beirut too has been conspicuous by its silence. No inflammatory declarations have been issued and Hezbollah continues to maintain it had nothing to do with the incident.

According to AFP, experts in Beirut say that a period of calm will follow because Israel and Hezbollah are involved in delicate efforts to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, with the help of a German mediator.

According to press reports, Berlin's envoy is due to head to Lebanon in the next few days to finalise the terms and conditions of the exchange, which is symbolically important to both Hezbollah and Israel.

Palestinian and Arab media have reported that Israel could release around 400 prisoners, including 185 Lebanese, Syrians and Jordanians.

In return, Israel would secure the return of three Israeli soldiers - whom Israel believes are dead - and Elhanan Tannenbaum, a reserve colonel who Hezbollah says was a spy.

The four were captured by Hezbollah in separate operations in October 2000.