Lebanon in UN protest over raid
"The ministry filed an urgent protest with the UN Security Council against Israel over its aggression, threats and its continuous and provocative violations of the airspace and sovereignty of Lebanon," a senior official said.
"The airspace violations show a desire for escalation, and have been stepped up over the past three days, especially the past 24 hours," he said, asking not to be named.
Israeli warplanes bombed suspected Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, hours after the militant group shelled northern Israel, killing a teenage boy. The attacks came amid a surge of border violence following months of calm. Earlier yesterday,
Israel's foreign minister demanded that Syria and Lebanon restrain Hezbollah, or "we will have no choice but to defend ourselves".
The Lebanese officials said warplanes fired at least one missile on an area near the village of Teir Harfa, about three miles from the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Earlier yesterday, a senior Israeli security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah had fired three anti-tank shells at the town of Shlomi, near the Israeli-Lebanese border.
A 16-year-old boy was killed and four adults were lightly wounded by shrapnel, a spokesman for the hospital in nearby Nahariya said.
The Lebanese militant group, backed by Iran and Syria, said it had fired anti-aircraft shells at Israeli fighter jets flying over southern Lebanon, but Israeli security officials denied its aircraft were in the area at the time.
Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the shelling constituted "unbridled escalatory attacks" and "an intolerable state of affairs".
Hezbollah routinely responds to Israeli airforce flights over Lebanon with anti-aircraft fire, but tensions have worsened in recent days.
On Friday, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged artillery fire over a disputed area near the confluence of the Syrian, Lebanese and Israeli borders the first such exchange in eight months.
Hezbollah said Friday's shelling was retaliation for the August 2 killing of Hezbollah security official Ali Hussein Saleh by a bomb in his car south of Beirut. Hezbollah blames Israel for his death.
Anti-aircraft shells also fell on Saturday on the northern town of Kiryat Shemona, but no injuries were reported. Yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom held Lebanon and Syria responsible for Hezbollah's actions.
"We say to Syria and Lebanon as responsible parties for Hezbollah behaviour if Hezbollah activities continue and constitute an undermining of security of the citizens of Israel, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves," Shalom said.
"I think the regime in Syria knows very well what our capabilities are, and I don't think it's worthwhile for it to put us to the test," he said.
Israel's ambassador to the UN also sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan holding Syria and Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's "acts of terror," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yonatan Peled said on Saturday.
American diplomats also told Lebanon and Syria that the administration was concerned about the "calculated and provocative escalation" by Hezbollah, State Department deputy spokesman Philip T Reeker said.
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Sheik Naeem Qassem yesterday said Hezbollah "is fully prepared and ready to respond in the proper manner to any Israel aggression or threat."
Syria's state-run Tishrin newspaper charged in an editorial yesterday that Israel was trying "to expand the circle of its aggression and deliberately provoke and threaten more than one Arab country" to slow progress on the road map peace plan with the Palestinians.
Israel withdrew its forces from a self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon in May 2000, following more than a decade of low-level warfare with Hezbollah, including frequent Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israeli towns.
Since then, the violence has declined sharply.
Hezbollah, which is on the US State Department's list of terrorist organisations, led a guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of the border zone in southern Lebanon.
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