4 soldiers injured in gunbattles with Hizbullah
Paratrooper seriously wounded during operation against Hizbullah posts on western part of northern border; exchanges of fire erupt on eastern part of border, three soldiers lightly to moderately injured by anti-tank missile. Hizbullah: We destroyed Merkava tank
Hanan Greenberg
An Israel Defense Forces paratrooper was seriously injured after being shot by a sniper Thursday morning in exchanges of fire with Hizbullah members during an operation on the western part of the northern border.
The force was operating on Lebanese territory as part of redefining the new border between Israel and Lebanon, aimed at hitting Hizbullah targets near the border. The soldiers also destroyed three rocket launchers. At a certain stage, Hizbullah opened fire at the forces, hurting one of the soldiers in his jaw. He was evacuated to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed.
Exchanges of fire also erupted Thursday morning between the Israel Defense Forces and Hizbullah members on the northern border, near Avivim in the eastern region.
Three soldiers were injured, sustaining light to moderate wounds, after being hit by an anti-tank missile in an IDF tank on Lebanese territory.
Simultaneously, heavy exchanges of fire are being held in the northern border's western region.
Hizbullah's al-Manar television station enthusiastically reported of the incident in Avivim: "The Zionist enemy's soldiers have tried in vain to advance toward the Lebanese lands in order to achieve a military victory."
"Once again the people of God resisted them, and proved to them that an army without an army can overcome them. The last attempt took place at 6:50 this morning, Thursday, when the fighters resisted them and destroyed a Merkava tank. Fighting continues to this hour," al-Manar reported.
Two of the injured soldiers were evacuated to the Ziv Medical Center. One of them was taken to the surgery room after suffering from shrapnel and wounds to his legs. The other soldier suffered from shrapnel wounds in his lower limbs.
IDF fighters went through long hours of battle in the Avivim area Wednesday. The battles took place during an operation of an elite
IDF unit against terrorists near the community of Avivim north of Safed, a few hundred meters inside the Lebanese territory.
The force was operating in the area in order to strike a Hizbullah bunker in which arms and rockets were being stored. The soldiers waited in the area since the morning hours, before encountering the terror cell in an area in which an IDF post once existed, which looked out over the area.
IDF: Hizbullah built mass bunker network
The soldiers killed during the gunbattles are Staff Sergeant Yonatan Hadassi, 21, from kibbutz Merhavia and Staff Sergeant Yotam Gilboa, 21, from kibbutz Maoz Haim. Nine soldiers were wounded.
A senior IDF Northern Command officer told Ynet that Hizbullah has set up an extensive underground bunker network not far from the Israeli border.
Hizbullah terrorists were hiding out in the fortified underground bunkers some 40 meters (roughly 120 feet) underground, along with mass weapons caches, the officer said.
“Despite the results of the event, we’ll continue with this operation,” the officer stated. “There are missions that the Air Force cannot carry out and they need to be completed by other means.”
While the war in the north enters its ninth day, and the firing of rockets at Israel continues, defense establishment and cabinet officials are debating whether to also launch a large-scale ground offensive.
The grave events of the past two days are apparently being taken into consideration if Israel decided to enter Lebanon again.
Meanwhile, the air and artillery strikes continued. A senior IDF officer told Ynet: "So far we have fired more than 10,000 shells at Lebanon. Using our equipment, we hit ammunition storerooms, launchers and even groups of terrorists."
He added that the artillery equipment enables a more precise hit up to dozens of kilometers inside the Lebanese territory.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3278724,00.html
A senior IDF Northern Command officer told Ynet that Hizbullah has set up an extensive underground bunker network not far from the Israeli border.
Hizbullah terrorists were hiding out in the fortified underground bunkers some 40 meters (roughly 120 feet) underground, along with mass weapons caches, the officer said.
UN warns of war crimes in Lebanon
Killing of civilians in Lebanon is likely to subject Israeli soldiers to war crime trials in international courts, UN human rights high commissioner says
Ronen Bodoni
The continuation of Israel's operation in Lebanon and the rising civilian death toll is likely "could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control," Louise Arbour, the high commissioner for human rights, told the New York Times.
“International humanitarian law is clear on the supreme obligations to protect civilians during hostilities,’’ she said.
“Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians,” she said in a statement released by her office in Geneva. “Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged innocent civilians is unjustifiable.”
“Hizbullah fighters too are bound by the rules of international humanitarian law, and they must not target civilian areas,” it said, referring to the indiscriminate shelling of Israeli cities.
The statement was issued following calls for a cease-fire by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora who warned of a humanitarian crisis in his country.
Siniora said over 300 civilians have been killed by Israeli air strikes on his country.
Europe fearing response by Islamists
If the death toll in Lebanon continues to rise, pressure on Israel to stop its operation will increase and so will pressure on Washington to press its ally to stop the offensive.
According to a Washington Post report, European officials are concerned that the Bush administration's siding with Israel will fuel tension between the west and Arab nations, encourage Islamists to carry out terror attacks against western targets, strengthen support for Osama Bin Laden, and escalate the fighting between coalition forces and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The one thing that is guaranteed to send the Arab world and the Persian world over the edge is for the US to be seen ultimately to be doing what they always believed - to be fully in cahoots with Israel," a European official told the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. "The danger of allowing it to continue is that the United States is more and more despised. It's not like the US had a good reputation within the region to start with."
The White House denied it is coordinating with Israel or "sitting around at the war table saying 'Do this, this and this,'" press secretary Tony Snow said.
"We're not colluding, we're not cooperating, we're not conspiring, we're not doing any of that," he told reporters. "The Israelis are doing what they think is necessary to protect their borders."
The State Department also denied that the Bush administration is backing Israel's military operation in Lebanon.
"I don't think anybody disagrees on the desire to end the violence in the region, but let's remember what the root causes of the violence are," spokesman Sean McCormack said.
A senior administration official told the Post that it is too early to speak of a diplomatic solution. "The conditions that the G-8 (Group of Eight industrialized nations) talked about are not in place to get a real and permanent cease-fire that addresses the fundamental problems of the region," he told the newspaper.
He said Israel faces "a terrible problem" because Hizbullah is operating from within civilian areas. "They make mistakes, and there are accidents," he said. "It is impossible for them to avoid all the collateral damage."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3278907,00.html