Israel to return bodies of Hezbollah guerrillas

Israel is to hand over the corpses of three Hezbollah guerrillas killed in this week’s border clashes to Lebanon.

Lebanese Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife said: “They must be handed over in order to avoid an escalation.”

Khalife, whose Amal party is close to Hezbollah, told Voice of Lebanon radio: “It is known that the resistance will try to secure the return of the bodies one way or another, and this usually ends up in negotiations to trade them for the bodies of Israeli soldiers or for prisoners.”

In Jerusalem, the Israeli military issued a statement saying Israel would transfer the bodies of the three guerrillas “following the formal request made by the Lebanese government.” It said the handover would take place at the Naqoura border crossing this morning.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora first made the demand during a visit to Qatar on Wednesday.

“What is required is the handover of the bodies of the resistance fighters who fell as martyrs during the latest confrontations in order to defuse the tension on Lebanon’s international border,” Saniora told reporters.

Four guerrillas were killed and 11 Israeli soldiers were wounded in Monday’s fighting on the south Lebanon border. Israeli warplanes and artillery bombarded Hezbollah positions, and the guerrillas fired missiles at Israeli military outposts.

Israel killed three guerrillas who crossed the border, and a fourth wounded guerrilla was retrieved by his comrades and later died on the Lebanese side.

Lebanese security officials said the government had passed the request for the bodies to the UN peacekeeping force on the border, which mediates between the two states that are technically at war.

Fighting briefly resumed on Wednesday when an Israeli civilian in a hang glider drifted across the border and landed inside Lebanon. Israeli troops shot at Hezbollah guerrillas to prevent them from capturing the civilian as he ran back to Israel.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli planes dropped thousands of anti-Hezbollah leaflets over Beirut and other Lebanese regions.

In Qatar, Prime Minister Saniora said he condemned the pamphlet drop as yet another example of Israeli violation of Lebanese territory, according to a report by Lebanon’s official National News Agency.

Lebanon has repeatedly complained of Israeli overflights, which have been censured by the United Nations.

Following a meeting yesterday, the Lebanese Cabinet issued a statement holding Israel responsible for this week’s border clashes and calling the distribution of anti-Hezbollah leaflets “a threat to the security and stability of Lebanon which aims at provoking Lebanese against each other.” The statement called on the UN Security Council to consider all the facts on the ground before issuing any decisions.

The Security Council accused Hezbollah on Wednesday of starting this week’s attacks. In a statement, the council appealed for restraint from both sides.

Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, reacting to the UN statement, said Lebanon’s repeated complaints about Israeli violations “were not met with the necessary decisiveness” by the international community.

“And now the aggressor is being treated as the victim,” he said of Israel. Salloukh said Lebanon continues to have faith in the United Nations and would persist in its contacts to explain its position in search of calm and stability.

Hezbollah has denied initiating the attacks. A close ally of Syria, it is thought the group was trying both to capture Israeli soldiers for a future exchange of prisoners and to take pressure off Damascus.

Last year, Hezbollah swapped an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers for about 400 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners.

An escalation of tension in southern Lebanon could strengthen Syria’s hand with the United Nations by underlining the need for Syrian influence in maintaining peace in the region.

A UN investigation into the February assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri has implicated Syrian intelligence. But Damascus and the UN investigators have failed to agree on a venue for the questioning of six Syrian officials. The UN Security Council warned Syria this month that it must cooperate fully with the investigation or face further action.