Israeli teen Haviv Dadon was killed Sun. by Hezbollah fire in the northern town of Shlomi.
Posted on 08/10/2003 6:24:36 AM PDT by IsraelBeach
Hizbullah cross-border shelling kills one, wounds four Israelis in North By DAVID RUDGE
One man has died from wounds sustained in a cross-border shelling attack by Hizbullah. He was in his early twenties.
It is the first fatality in over a year of such shelling by Hizbullah. The anti-aircraft shells landed on the town of Shlomi in the western Galilee.
(Click here for a list of incidents on the border in the last three years.)
Four others were wounded by shrapnel, one of them seriously.
All were evacuated to the Nahariya Government Hospital by Magen David Adom "Natan" mobile intensive care ambulances.
Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the shelling constituted "unbridled escalatory attacks ... an intolerable state of affairs."
Over the weekend, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan holding the Syrian and Lebanese governments responsible for Hizbullah's "acts of terror," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yonatan Peled said Saturday.
American diplomats also told Lebanon and Syria that the administration was concerned about the "calculated and provocative escalation" by Hizbullah, State Department deputy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said. Hezbollah is on the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations.
Syria's state-run Tishrin newspaper charged in an editorial Sunday that Israel was trying "to expand the circle of its aggression and deliberately provoke and threaten more than one Arab country," in hopes of slowing progress on the "road map" peace plan with the Palestinians long enough to deal with its internal problems.
But the official protest and warnings did not stop Hizbullah from firing more anti-aircraft shells over the eastern part of Upper Galilee Saturday afternoon. Some shrapnel hit homes in Kiryat Shmona and Metulla and several people had to be treated for shock, but no one was seriously hurt and the damage to property was relatively light.
There were also no Israeli casualties as a result of Hizbullah's cross-border bombardments on IDF positions in the Mount Dov and Mount Hermon regions and its subsequent firing over the Galilee on Friday.
Damage, however, was caused to IDF outposts in the Mount Dov region as well as to a house, which was unoccupied at the time, near the Golan Heights Druse village of Majdal Shams.
Hizbullah gunners unleashed a barrage of anti-tank, mortar, and Katyusha rocket fire at IDF positions on Mount Dov and on the Golan Heights in the Mount Hermon region Friday at about 10am.
On Sunday, only hours before the fatal shelling, Foreign Minister Shalom held Lebanon and Syria responsible for Hizbullah's actions.
"We say to Syria and Lebanon as responsible parties for Hizbullah behavior ... that if Hizbullah activities continue and constitute an undermining of security of the citizens of Israel, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves."
Shalom declined to elaborate on what he meant.
"We don't want to use the language of threats now and say what we will do and how we will do it," he said. "I think the regime in Syria knows very well what our capabilities are, and I don't think it's worthwhile for it to put us to the test."
Israel withdrew its forces from a self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon in May 2000, following more than a decade of low level warfare with Hizbullah, including frequent Hizbullah rocket attacks on northern towns. Since then violence between the sides has all but disappeared.
With The Associated Press
Go get 'em, IAF!!!
The real reason Israel has to make these flights (about 4 each month) because the UN forces there who are supposed to be keeping the "peace" are not doing their job and providing cover for the terrorists. If anyone is to be blamed it should be the UN, for their incompetence which causes Israel to have to make these flights so that the terrorists are in check.
However, this is not applicable for this incident? Why? As the media continues to babble about Israel's planes that caused this attack, they are yet again quick to spew anti-Israel propaganda, just like that failed Rantisi targeted killing by Israel, which the media paints as the reason a subsquent suicide bombing in Israel took plane.
IDF Spokesperson reports that at the time of the attack by the Hizbullah terrorist group there WERE NO ISRAELI PLANES MAKING ANY FLIGHTS IN LEBANON.
Israeli teen Haviv Dadon was killed Sun. by Hezbollah fire in the northern town of Shlomi.
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