Israel strikes after Hizbollah soldiers seized

By Alaa Shahine

QASMIYEH, Lebanon (Reuters) – Israel’s government
authorised on Wednesday what it called a severe response after
the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah captured two soldiers
and killed eight others in cross-border attacks.

A statement issued by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s cabinet
said Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for the
attacks and for the safe return of the seized soldiers. But it
offered no details about what type of action would be taken.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said his government
had not known of the Hizbollah attack and did not endorse it or
accept responsibility.

Before the announcement in Jerusalem, waves of air strikes
hit a dozen bridges and suspected Hizbollah posts, killing two
Lebanese civilians and a Hizbollah fighter as well as
disrupting fixed-line communications between Beirut and south
Lebanon.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the soldiers
had been seized to force Israel to release prisoners.

“What we did today … is the only feasible path to free
detainees from Israeli jails,” he told a news conference in
Beirut, proposing indirect negotiations, not confrontation.

He said the operation had been in the works for five
months. Hizbollah has made two previous failed attempts to
catch Israeli soldiers for a prisoner swap in less than a year.

Two Lebanese civilians were killed in an Israeli air raid
on a coastal bridge at Qasmiyeh. Bombs hit 11 other bridges and
at least 25 Lebanese were wounded, security sources said.

One bridge, at Damour village some 16 km (10 miles) south
of Beirut, was hit 12 hours after the first shots were fired.
Several suspected Hizbollah posts in south Lebanon also came
under Israeli bombardment from land.

Hizbollah’s bold attack returned it to the frontline of the
Middle East conflict. It inflicted the heaviest losses Israel
has suffered on its northern border since it withdrew from
south Lebanon in 2000, and drew Olmert into a second crisis
over captured soldiers.

Israel is engaged in a military offensive in the Gaza Strip
after Palestinian militants captured a soldier on June 25.

Israel killed at least 23 Palestinians, including nine
members of one family on Wednesday in an air strike that
destroyed a house where the army said senior Hamas commanders
were meeting.

The White House condemned the Hizbollah attack and blamed
Syria and Iran, which both back the Lebanese Shi’ite group.

Syria said Israeli actions were to blame for guerrilla
attacks.

Hamas political bureau member Mohammad Nazzal told Reuters
the capture of the two Israeli soldiers was a “heroic
operation” and would help a campaign to free 1,000
Palestinians.

Lebanese civilians braced for Israeli bombs, but many
Shi’ites in the south expressed defiance. “Israel will pay the
price for any retaliation,” said Hussein Mohammed, 55.

SWEETS AND FIREWORKS

The sources said the Israeli soldiers had been seized at
around 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) across the border from Aita al-Shaab,
some 15 km (nine miles) from the Mediterranean coast.

The Israeli army confirmed that two soldiers were captured
and eight killed on the Lebanese frontier.

Hizbollah supporters set off fire crackers and distributed
sweets in the streets of Beirut in celebration.

Nasrallah said Hizbollah had repelled an Israeli force that
tried to go into Lebanon to hunt for the missing soldiers,
destroying a tank and killing four crew members.

Footage on Hizbollah’s al-Manar television showed a
smouldering Israeli jeep, with a soldier’s kit lying beside it.
It showed smoke rising from an Israeli border post.

Israeli troops have not struck deep into Lebanon since they
left six years ago after an 18-year struggle with Hizbollah.

“It is an act of war by the state of Lebanon,” Olmert said
of Hizbollah’s action.

“Israel must act with appropriate severity in response to
this attack and it will do so,” the Israeli cabinet said.
“Israel will respond in a forthright and severe manner against
the perpetrators responsible and will act to prevent future
efforts and actions directed against Israel.”

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz asked his commanders
to prepare civil defense plans because of fears Hizbollah would
fire long-range rockets at Israeli cities and industrial
installations in the heart of the country.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan led widespread
international calls for Hizbollah to free the two Israelis.

In 2004, Hizbollah swapped a kidnapped Israeli businessman
and the bodies of three soldiers for more than 420 Arab
prisoners after German mediation.

Germany said on Wednesday it was contacting Middle Eastern
capitals about Hizbollah’s Israeli prisoners, but declined to
say if it was ready to mediate again.

Hizbollah, the only Lebanese faction to retain its weapons
after the 1975-90 civil war, is also a political party with 14
members in the Beirut parliament.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Dan
Williams at Kissufim, and by Beirut, Jerusalem, Paris, Rome and
Berlin)