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Israel Strikes at Hezbollah Targets in South Lebanon
Israeli jet fighters attacked Saturday targets of Lebanese resistance guerrillas group Hezbollah, or Party of God, in south Lebanon to retaliate for a hit on an Israeli tank by Hezbollah forces along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
The strike, the first such attacks since Israeli troop withdrawal from south Lebanon last May, came after Hezbollah forces hit a tank of the Israel Defense Force (IDF) in a heavy exchange of gunfire at Har Dov area along the Lebanese border, the IDF said in a statement.
Hezbollah said earlier on Saturday that its fighters hit an Israeli tank inside a position in the occupied Shebaa Farms, a disputed area along the Syrian-Lebanese border captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.
IDF helicopters quickly arrived at the scene in response to the attack, while warplanes attacked Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon.
The IDF also responded by firing about 60 artillery shells in the Kfar Shouba area of Lebanon.
The IDF statement confirmed the incident, and said that "An Israeli post was attacked, apparently by anti-tank missiles, and soldiers returned fire."
In a similar attack on February 18, anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah forces on an IDF patrol in the Har Dov area killed one soldier and injured three others.
Hezbollah spearheaded resistance to eventually force Israel to withdrew its troops from south Lebanon last May after a 22-year occupation of the border strip. But it vows to continue fighting as long as Israel occupies the Shebaa Farms.
Syria and Lebanon claim that the Shebaa Farms belong to Lebanon. Israel insists that the fate of the farms should be decided in its negotiations with Syria.
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