 |
Israeli shelled four Lebanese border villages, a key bridge and the power station.
|
BEIRUT — The Lebanese resistance group Hizbullah killed at least seven Israeli soldiers and captured two others on Wednesday, July 12, a strategic development that is expected to have regional repercussions.
"Fulfilling its pledge to liberate the (Arab) prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance ... captured two Israeli soldiers at the border with occupied Palestine," Hizbullah said in a statement cited by Reuters.
"The two captives were transferred to a safe place."
The group, which is represented in both the parliament and the government, said the high-profile operation aims at securing the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails, Reuters said.
The Israeli army said there was a "strong possibility" that the two missing soldiers have been taken prisoner by Hizbullah.
High on the list of possible Hizbullah's demands would be the release of Lebanon's longest-serving prisoner Samir Kantar, in prison since 1979.
Israel has long linked his release to receiving credible proof regarding the fate of its missing airman Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.
In 2004, Hizbullah and Israel reached a landmark prisoner swap agreement following nearly three years of on-again and off-again negotiations.
Under the agreement, Israel released around 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese, five Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, a Libyan national and a German in exchange for the release of Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.
Israel also returned the corpses of 59 Lebanese nationals killed in action.
Seven Killed
Seven Israelis were killed and another eight wounded in cross-border attacks by Hizbullah, the Israeli rescue service ZAKA said.
The identities of the dead were not immediately clear.
Lebanese security sources said Israeli aircraft bombed a key bridge linking the south's major cities of Tyre and Nabatiyeh.
Israeli warplanes also knocked out the main power station in south Lebanon.
At least two Lebanese civilians were killed and three others wounded in the Israeli bombardment.
Earlier, four Israelis were wounded when the resistance group fired dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortar bombs at Israeli border posts.
Israeli gunners retaliated, firing salvoes of artillery shells into the outskirts of four Lebanese border villages. Israeli occupation soldiers also exchanged gunfire with Hizbullah fighters in the area.
The fighting apparently began when at least two rockets fired from south Lebanon exploded near Shlomi, an Israeli frontier town about 15 km (9 miles) east of the Mediterranean coast.
Hizbullah resistance group also attacked Israeli posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms area to the east, the Lebanese security sources said.
Israel has already launched a major military offensive in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian resistance group captured a soldier on June 25.
|
