Israel has threatened to exact a high price from Lebanon, Syria and Iran after Hizbullah carried out an attack in disputed Shebaa for the first time in four months, Sabine Darrous reports from Beirut An operation carried out late last week by the resistance Hizbullah movement in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding two others, has revived tension along the border. It also opened the door for a barrage of Israeli threats against Lebanon, Syria and Iran -- the latter two are accused by Israel of backing and arming Hizbullah. Meanwhile, the Israeli response was quick and firm. Israeli jets dropped anti-missile flares as they circled over Beirut Thursday night. Artillery shells and rocket fire were shot from Israeli military aircraft at suspected Hizbullah positions, but there were no causalities reported on the Lebanese side. During its Shebaa Farms attacks against Israeli forces, which eyewitnesses described as intense, Hizbullah shelled two outposts on the heights above the southern village of Kfar Shuba. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded as 20 mortar shells and anti-tank rockets were fired in the span of a few minutes. One of the soldiers, Ofir Meshal, 20, who was seriously wounded in the attack, died a few days later in an Israeli hospital after suffering severe injuries, an Israeli spokesman said Sunday. "I want to make it clear to the Syrians and the Lebanese that they are playing with fire," Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said in a statement on Sunday. Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said that operations in the Shebaa Farms were "something normal", adding that the resistance was "carrying out its duty". Despite these strong threats, observers said regional parties were quick to contain the possible reprecussions of the attack to avoid opening a new war front at a time when the situation is extremely volatile in Palestine and the United States is preparing to attack Iraq. They linked the Hizbullah attack to the regional tour carried out this week by deputy US Middle East envoy David Satterfield. The resistance movement was apparently sending a message to the US official that it would not give up its demand for the liberation of the occupied Shebaa farms. Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported that Ben-Eliezer has asked Satterfield to inform Lebanese and Syrian officials that they were "playing with fire". The two officials were reported to have discussed the possibility that Hizbullah and Syria were trying to take advantage of the possible US attack against Iraq to hit Israel, the newspaper added. They also considered another alternative, which, according to Ha'aretz, could be an "attempt by Syria and Hizbullah to drag Israel into responding to the attacks to obstruct the possible US offensive against Iraq". Some Israeli officials believe that Hizbullah timed its attack to coincide with the end of the summer season in Lebanon and the beginning of Jewish feasts in Israel. But Hizbullah has continuously maintained that it has not abandoned its Shebaa Farms campaign, insisting that while regional circumstances were taken into consideration, the timing of operations in the farms was dependent upon the situation on the ground. Mohamed Raad, the head of Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc, said the party was fulfilling its right to resist and would not stop until "the last Israeli occupier withdraws from the last grain of sand of occupied Lebanon". "It's our responsibility to continue our military operations against the occupation and we are ready to confront any escalation in the south," Raad said. The attack was the first in the farms since 26 April, making the past four months the calmest in the border district since the campaign to oust the Israelis from the occupied Shebaa Farms began in October 2000. Hizbullah was careful to continue to launch "token" operations in the past to dismiss media allegations that the resistance has abandoned its campaign. Observers were expecting Hizbullah to carry out an operation near the end of July, when the mandate of the United Nations peace keeping force in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, was due to be renewed for another six months. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have reinforced their front-line outposts in the Shebaa Farms in recent weeks after 10 soldiers were wounded by Hizbullah artillery barrages during a two-week escalation of fighting in April. Israeli officials believe that the situation along Israeli's northern border is graver now than during the Israeli army's occupation of south Lebanon. Israel's new chief of staff Lieutenant-General Moshe Yaalon, said that Israel would exact a "heavy price" on "first of all, Syria, then Lebanon, Hizbullah and the Iranians in Lebanon", if the resistance was to strike the north of the country with rockets. Acknowledging that the threat posed by Hizbullah "cannot be disturbing", he said Israel possessed a "crushing answer" to the resistance and the Syrians. "I do not think that a confrontation in the north is inevitable. But if they decide to escalate, we will be obliged to exact a very heavy price from all the bodies I mentioned," Yaalon said.
