Israelis destroy Hezbollah outposts

ISRAEL said yesterday it had destroyed most of the military positions of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas along its northern border in the heaviest fighting since it ended its 18-year occupation of Southern Lebanon.

Rocket and artillery exchanges killed two Hezbollah guerrillas and wounded two Israeli soldiers on Sunday.

An Israeli newspaper, meanwhile, reported that Iran has equipped Hezbollah with rockets capable of hitting all of Israel’s major cities, including Beer Sheva in the south. The Haaretz daily, citing intelligence sources, said the rockets have a range of about 125 miles, or double that of weapons previously in Hezbollah’s arsenal. Israeli commander Brigadier Gal Hirsch declined to comment on the report, but he said Iranian weapons in the hands of Hezbollah, including mortars and missiles, pose a real threat to Israel.

The cross-border fighting began when Hezbollah fired Katyusha rockets from Lebanon at Israel’s northern Galilee region, hitting an air force base, then attacked Israeli outposts along the border. In response, Israel unleashed its fiercest artillery barrage since withdrawing from Lebanon in 2000.

“Our main effort was to destroy the frontline that Hezbollah has built in the last six years,” said Brig Hirsch, who commands an Israeli army border division.

Brig Hirsch said Hezbollah had established dozens of frontline outposts along the border with Israel.

He said the Israeli military was ready for a Hezbollah attack, having prepared a contingency plan. “We were waiting for them for weeks.”

Witnesses in the border region said several Hezbollah outposts were heavily damaged or destroyed by the Israeli shelling and air raids. Those positions are largely observation posts manned by guerrillas carrying light arms, unlike hidden, mobile launch sites where Hezbollah fires Katyusha rockets.

Tensions along the border rose after a senior official in the violent Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, was killed in a car bomb in the southern Lebanese town of Sidon last week. Israel has denied involvement.

Meanwhile, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian faction leaders have agreed to launch an intensive 10-day schedule of talks aimed at bridging gaps between the sides and stave off his plan to impose a national referendum on recognising Israel’s right to exist.

Abbas adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo said that delegations would meet in Ramallah and in Gaza twice daily, starting the clock ticking toward Mr Abbas’s deadline for the Hamas-led government to come up with a formula that will allow it to win back international support and revive Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.