Israel threatens Syria after Hizbollah bomb kills teenager

ISRAEL threatened Syria yesterday after Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon fired anti-aircraft shells that killed an Israeli teenager on Israel’s northern border, but said it hoped to defuse tension through diplomacy.

Israeli deputy defence minister Zeev Boim said Israel held Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon, responsible for Hizbollah’s actions. “Syria is definitely the umbilical cord from which Hizbollah feeds. If there is escalation from their side, there will be definitely be a clear military response from Israel that could inevitably be against Syrian targets.”

The death of the 16-year-old in the Israeli border town of Shlomi on Sunday was the first fatality from Hizbollah shelling since Israel withdrew its forces from South Lebanon in May, 2000, after a 22-year occupation, amid daily attacks by the group. In the Lebanese capital, Hizbollah threatened renewed anti-aircraft fire if Israeli aircraft entered Lebanese airspace again. Boim said Israeli flights, which he called reconnaissance missions, would continue. Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy for Lebanon, told reporters in Beirut: “We are appealing to all sides ... to stop this type of potential escalation. Overflights should not take place over Lebanon.”

He complained about the danger of anti-aircraft fire, which he said was “most of the time correlated to overflights.”

Israeli warplanes bombed an anti-aircraft battery on the edge of a South Lebanon village on Sunday in retaliation for the Shlomi shelling. Israeli warplanes later flew over Beirut, breaking the sound barrier.

Israel called the air raids a “warning signal” and Boim appeared to signal that Israel did not for now plan further military action.

“He said diplomatic pressure “could be an effective tool as well.”

Tension has risen on the border since Hizbollah, which is also backed by Iran and controls South Lebanon, fired rockets and mortars at an Israeli post in a disputed area on Friday.

Hizbollah regards the area, known as Shebaa Farms and retained by the Israeli army after its withdrawal from the rest of southern Lebanon, as Lebanese territory.

The United Nations says it belongs to Syria.