Olmert calls Lebanese guerilla attack 'an act of war'

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today declared a Lebanese guerrilla attack on Israel’s northern border to be “an act of war,” and vowed that the Israeli response “will be very, very, very painful”.

Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in the attack.

Israel’s Cabinet plans to convene this evening to approve additional military activiy in Lebanon, Olmert said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

“Israel’s response will be restrained but very, very, very painful,” Olmert said.

The military, which sent planes and gunboats to strike southern Lebanon, plans to call up a reserves division of several thousand soldiers, security officials said.

Ground troops also entered to look for the soldiers and to keep them from being taken deeper into Lebanon, government officials said.

Olmert said the attack was not an act of terror but an attack by a sovereign state on Israel.

The Lebanese government, of which Hezbollah is a part, “must bear full responsibility,” he said.