Explosive device kills mother and son in the south

A woman and her son were blown to pieces on a Hola-Markaba road in South Lebanon near the Israeli-occupied town of Markaba, 16 kilometers (10 miles) south of Marjayounon yesterday morning.

Khadija El-Hajj (45 years old) and Ali El-Hajj (14 years old) were killed on their way back from the tobacco fields where they were working. The device which killed the victims instantly was a land mine, according to Lebanese security officials.

The Hizbullah resistance accused Israel of this double murder, and accused Israel of planting and detonating the bomb with the aim of undermining a 1996 agreement between Lebanon and Israel to avoid targeting civilians. The group's commander in south Lebanon, Sheik Nabil Qaouk, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was directly responsible.

In Israel, the army said the incident was "another violation" of the agreement, implying Hezbollah was responsible. Hola's inhabitants, on the other hand accused Israel of the crime and demanded the Lebanese government file a complaint.

Meanwhile, the monitoring group of the April Agreements Committee is holding a meeting today to discuss two Israeli and two Lebanese complaints.

Israeli troops often enter the zone on roads near Markaba to plant roadside bombs. But the guerrillas also are known to set off roadside bombs in the area in their war to evict the Israelis and their Lebanese militia allies from south Lebanon.

Israel set up the zone in 1985 to protect its northern towns from cross-border guerrilla attacks. It is patrolled by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers and 2,500 members of the Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army militia (SLA).

Sunday's casualties raised to 35 the number of civilian deaths in the south this year.

Also Sunday, Hezbollah detonated a bomb as an SLA patrol traveled on a road near the town of Jezzine, security officials said. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, saying it "killed or wounded members of the patrol."

However, Lebanese security officials said no casualties were reported in the bombing

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