- Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI FORCES COME UNDER ATTACK ON LEBANESE BORDER
- Date: 8th June 2004
- Summary: (W5) ISRAEL-SYRIA-LEBANON BORDER (JUNE 8, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF GUNFIRE, AS ISRAELI FORCES COME UNDER ATTACK AROUND ARMY POSTS IN HAR DOV IN SHEEBA FARMS AREA , LARGE PLUME OF DUSK AND SMOKE RISING ON MOUNTAINSIDE 0.21 2. VARIOUS OF MOUNTAINOUS AREA, AUDIO OF GUNFIRE 0.30 3. GV HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD 0.40 4.
- Embargoed: 23rd June 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ISRAEL-SYRIA-LEBANON BORDER/NAAMEH, BURJ BARAJNE REFUGEE CAMP, LEBANON
- City:
- Country: Lebanon Israel
- Reuters ID: LVA6FSOXDV8AE3KB6T8ZX79WDHIR
- Story Text: Flare-up at Israeli-Lebanon border, with Israeli
forces coming under attack in Har Dov, and a strike on a
Palestinian former military base south of Beirut.
Tension escalated at the Lebanon-Israel border on
Tuesday (June 8). Hizbollah guerrillas, based in Southern
Lebanon, attacked Israeli positions in the disputed Shebaa
farms area on Tuesday, wounding one Israeli soldier, a day
after Israeli warplanes raided a Palestinian base near
Beirut.
An Israeli military source confirmed Israeli positions
were attacked with anti-tank missiles and mortar shells
near the Israeli military installation of Har Dov, located
in a mountainous area close to the Sheeba farms.
Residents in Kfar Shouba village on Lebanon's border with Israel
sa
id they earlier heard Israeli gunfire coming
from inside the disputed area. They said Israel retaliated
to the Hizbollah attacks with artillery fire on nearby
villages. Witnesses said Israeli warplanes flew over the
area and were fired on by Hizbollah guerrillas using
shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles.
Hizbollah confirmed it had targeted Israeli positions
and said it would release a statement later on Tuesday.
Hizbollah, which controls the territory bordering on
Israel, says Shebaa Farms is occupied Lebanese territory,
while the United Nations describes it as Israeli-occupied
Syrian land.
On Monday, Israel attacked a Palestinian base deep
inside Lebanon, in retaliation for rocket fire at an
Israeli navy ship in the Mediterranean earlier that day.
It was the closest air raid to Beirut since Israeli
troops withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 after 22 years
of occupation.
Security sources said the targeted village of Naameh,
20 km (12 miles) south of Beirut, was used by the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command
(PFLP-GC). The group said the base was used as a medical
centre.
Lebanon complained about the air raid to the United
Nations Security Council. The United Nations called on both
Lebanon and Israel to try to prevent further violence.
Israeli millitary sources said Israeli army posts around
Har Dov came under repeated attacks on Tuesday (June 8).
Har Dov is located on Israel's northern border, in a
disputed area at the Lebanon-Syria border. Israeli military
sources blamed Hizbollah for the attack.
On Monday night (June 7), Israel launched four rockets
against a Palestinian ex-military base in the coastal town
of Naameh, 20 kilometres south of Beirut. The strike
destroyed parts of an old military base used by the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine up till 1991, but
since abandoned. There were no casualties, and the strike
damaged the structure as well as old weapons and military
vehicles inside the building.
The strike appeared to be in retaliation to another
attack on Monday, blamed on Palestinian militants. Several
rockets fired from south Lebanon struck near an Israeli
navy ship on Monday in Israeli territorial waters off the
Mediterranean coast. The rockets fell into the sea near
Rosh Haniqra, on Israel's tense frontier with Lebanon and
there were no casualties, but they came very close to
hitting a naval vessel. UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force
in south Lebanon, said three rockets were launched from the
Naqoura area just north of the border at around dawn and it
was investigating.
Abu Rushdi, representative of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine General Command said Israel's
strike was a warning to Lebanon.
"This message is aimed at the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine General Command, which is in accord
with the Lebanese Resistance and the Lebanese Government -
and it evacuated its base in Naameh in 1991. It is a
message sent to the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, which plays a big role in the Occupied
Territories, through sending weapons, through financial
support, through the achievement of its fighting units in
the Occupied Territories. And everyone knows how the
companion leader Jihad Gibril was assassinated two years
ago, in reprisal for his role supporting the resistance and
the transportation of weapons to the Occupied Territories.
So it is a two-faced message, a message for Lebanon, its
people and government, and a message is also directed at
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General
Command, for its solid and continuous stance in fighting
the Zionist enemy," Abu Rushdi said, speaking from Burj
Baranje refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut.
Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas, who have periodically
clashed with the Israeli army along the border since it
withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000 after 22 years of
occupation, denied any knowledge of the rocket fire on
Monday.
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