JERUSALEM (AFP) -The Israeli army abandoned one of its positions in occupied southern Lebanon just days after Hezbollah intensified their attacks in the area.
Military sources said the post in Sojoud, which has been held by its proxy South Lebanon Army (SLA), had been evacuated at dawn for "operational reasons" and that SLA troops had been transferred to two other nearby positions. The SLA said in a statement that the pullout had been made for "security reasons."
Danny Yatom, security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, told military radio the move "should not be seen as a signal that Israel will withdraw from southern Lebanon without an agreement" with Syria and Lebanon.
Security sources described Sojoud as an "important strategic position" that controls the Iqlim al-Tuffah hills, stronghold of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah, which has gained control of the post on occasion.
The paramilitary wing of the Hezbollah (the Islamic Resistance) claimed an attack on an SLA patrol near Sojoud on Thursday. The pullout comes five days after SLA number two Akel Hashem was killed in an attack claimed by the Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese woman and her two children were wounded yesterday in Tyre during a raid by Israeli warplanes on southern Lebanon.
The woman and her nine- and 12-year-old children had been taken to a hospital after Israeli helicopters fired two missiles on the road from Barisheh to Maaraka, just east of Tyre.
A house and a car were also damaged in the raid, which came just after an Israeli warplane fired a missile in between the villages of Shukin and Jebsheet just across from the central sector of the Israeli-occupied zone.
Israel had also bombarded the Nabatiyeh region, damaging a house in Kfar Rumman.
The raids came after the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah claimed two attacks on Israeli positions at Al-Azzyeh and their stronghold at medieval Beaufort Castle. The Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah said in a statement in Beirut that there had been "losses" in the attacks on positions in the central sector of the zone.
Israel's proxy South Lebanon Army (SLA) confirmed two of their positions had been bombarded but said there had been no casualties.
Last month, the SLA withdrew from Kfar Huna, a key position in the eastern sector of the Israeli-occupied zone close to Jezzine, which it abandoned last May.
Barak has repeatedly pledged to end Israel's nearly 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon by July in the framework of a peace deal with Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon. However, he has yet to clarify if he would go ahead with the pullout in the absence of a peace deal. The second round of peace talks that were launched between Israel and Syria ended inconclusively in January.
