Israeli threats after wounding two of its soldiers in south Lebanon; unidentified group claimed responsibility
Lebanon-Israel, Politics, 12/9/2002

In an incident which is the first of its kind since last August, two Israeli soldiers were wounded, one is in a critical health condition, when their armored car blew up, just 30 meters from the Lebanese borders off "Burket Resha" which is facing the Israeli Zarghit settlement (Tabreikha).

Eye witnesses said that two Israeli helicopters came to the site of the explosion and one of them took the wounded to Israel. This was followed by the redeployment of large number of armored Israeli soldiers who opened intensive fire at the nearby woods.

The leader of the northern area in the Israeli army Bani Ghaez accused Syria and Lebanon of being behind this operation which he described as a very "serious incident." He told journalists "there is no doubt that it is a very dangerous incident which reveals that Lebanon does not meet its obligations to keep the borders calm and involves Syria which stands behind such acts." He accused the Hizbullah party of being behind this operation while other Israeli officials asked the UN to "make investigations through UNIFIL on a likely infiltration operation from the Lebanese territories."

The Israeli army radio said that the Israeli defense minister Sahoul Mofaz discussed with Israeli military men conditions following the attack. The radio quoted a security source as saying that the Israeli officials considered the operation as a violation to the "Red Line." The radio indicated, according to the security source that Mofaz when he was the Israeli army chief of staff used to reply to such attacks by bombarding Syrian and Lebanese targets.

Meantime, an unidentified side in Beirut yesterday claimed responsibility for the operation. An unidentified speaker said that what he called "the group of martyr Ramzi Nahra is responsible for the attack." He continued "the blood of martyr Ramzi Nahra will be revenged and Israel will pay the price heavily." Worthy mentioning that two Lebanese people were killed in a bomb explosion which was implanted on the side of a highway of Eble al-Saqqi- Kawkaba while they were in their car on Friday. They are Ramzi Nahra ( 45 year old) and his nephew Elie Issa ( born in 1973). The name of Nahra was often mentioned as a partner in kidnapping and handing over Ahmad al-Hallaq from the former occupied Lebanese areas and handing him to the Lebanese authorities which executed him, as well as facilitating Hizbullah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers and opening collaboration channels for other soldiers to deal with Hizbullah. Nahra was jailed repeatedly in the Israeli jails on charges of smuggling drugs.

Previous Stories:
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  Nasrullah: Israel rejected a proposal for exchanging prisoners   (11/23/2002)
  Lahd militia members demonstrate in Israel   (11/12/2002)

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