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 | Saturday, May 06, 2000, updated at 10:58(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Israeli Warplanes Strike Lebanese InfrastructureIsraeli jet fighters on Friday bombed two power stations in Lebanon and a guerrilla ammunition depot in retaliation for a rocket attack by Lebanese Hezbollah on northern Israel, the Israeli military said."The air raids were a response to the Katyusha fired at (the northern border town of) Kiryat Shmona and the Galilee," the military said in a statement. "The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) will continue to take all necessary action against Hezbollah and those backing it in order to defend the northern border," the statement added. Reports from Beirut said the Israeli warplanes attacked early Friday morning the power station of Bsalim on the outskirts of Beirut and another station in Dier Amar, near the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi. The bombing also left a crater in the Damascus road near the village of Tenayel, about 10 kilometers from the Syrian-Lebanon border. The Israeli raids on Lebanese infrastructure are the second one this year. In February, Israel destroyed three Lebanese power stations, prompting strong Arab condemnation. The retaliation air strike was authorized by the Israeli security cabinet which met Thursday night in Tel Aviv after residents of the north were sent to bomb shelters because Hezbollah launched five salvos of Katyusha rockets into the north Thursday afternoon, killing a IDF soldier and wounding 25 others. Hezbollah rocketed northern Israel for the deaths of an 80-year-old woman and her 40-year-old daughter and Israel's earlier air strikes against the Lebanese civilian targets which wounded at least 12 Lebanese. Hezbollah, or Party of God, is the main Lebanese military group fighting against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was meeting on Thursday with U.S. special Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross who was in Israel to try to mandate the Israeli-Palestinian final-status talks. Barak cut short the meeting after learning of the Hezbollah rocket attacks. At the security cabinet meeting, Barak stuck to his position that Israel was not to be trifled with by Hezbollah described the Katyusha attack as an escalation on the Hezbollah part. Washington called on all sides to show restraint and to return to the Grapes of Wrath understanding of June 1996, when Israel and Hezbollah agreed to refrain from hitting positions that could cause civilian casualties. The air strikes and exchange of fires have again raised tension along the Israeli-Lebanese border as Israel prepares to pull its troops out of south Lebanon by July.
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