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by Nayla Razzouk BEIRUT (AFP) - The Hezbollah kidnapped three Israeli soldiers in an ambush on Lebanon's northern border Saturday amid a wave of violence that left two Palestinians killed and 24 other people wounded in the wake of the unrest in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah also threatened to strike settlements in northern Israel if the Jewish state attacks Lebanon in retaliation for the kidnappings, triggering fears of escalation. "We declare clearly that any aggression against Lebanon under any pretext will be a foolish Israeli action and we will respond severely and comprehensively," a Hezbollah statement said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Beirut and Damascus to put an "immediate halt" to hostilities, while Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, "is the address for our response." Hezbollah said the operation was meant to help free Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons, "liberate every inch of our occupied territory and assist our Palestinian brothers in their Intifada [uprising]." A Lebanese official source quoted by the national news agency ANI said Israel must free all Lebanese it is holding if it wants its soldiers back "instead of reacting with warnings." Such warnings "could complicate things and escalate the situation and Israel, alone, bears responsibility for the results," the source said. A Hezbollah statement said the group ambushed an Israeli patrol at the Shebaa Farms, which lie on the borders of Lebanon, Israel and Israeli-occupied Syria, at 1:40 p.m. (1040 GMT). "The fighters fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at the patrol and engaged in a clash during which our fighters succeeded in capturing three enemy soldiers and liquidating the rest," it said. The Israeli army confirmed the kidnappings, pledging "to do everything to find those abducted and bring them home safe and sound." It said three Israeli soldiers were wounded in a separate incident when Hezbollah launched a hail of mortar fire and rockets on the Israeli-Lebanon border. Separately, a family of four Lebanese was hurt when an Israeli helicopter fired on their car as they fled during the clashes in Shebaa, Lebanese security sources said. Earlier Saturday, two Palestinian refugees were killed and 17 others were wounded when the Israeli army fired on hundreds of protestors throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at them across the Lebanese-Israeli border, medical sources told AFP. The Palestinians, from various camps in Lebanon, were waving Palestinian flags and shouting "Death to Israel" at about a dozen Israeli soldiers backed by four jeeps and a personnel carrier on the other side. Saturday's border battles were the first since the Israeli army withdrawal from southern Lebanon on May 24th, after 22 years of occupation. Hezbollah warned, "All the Zionists, soldiers and settlers, will be targets to the attacks of our heroic fighters." "The captured Zionist occupation soldiers will remain in our hands until we achieve the objective of this blessed operation," the group threatened in a statement. "The enemy knows that it has no other option. It is time for the Zionists to learn that Lebanon will not cede to any threat and that it [Lebanon] is the cemetery of the aggressors," it added. Hezbollah said the Shebaa kidnapping operation was "offered to the martyr Mohammed al-Durra and all the martyrs who fell at the al-Aqsa mosque." Durra, 12, was among more than 80 Palestinians and others killed during clashes with Israeli forces in the past week in the Palestinian territories, Jerusalem and parts of Israel. His death as he cowered in his father's arms was caught by television cameras, and shocked viewers around the world, making him a symbol of the children who have died in the violence. The wave of violence was sparked by a visit on September 28th by Israeli right-wing opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, within an area sacred to both Muslims and Jews. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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