The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, vowed yesterday to retaliate against Hizbullah in south Lebanon after an Israeli soldier was reported killed and at least six wounded by a powerful roadside bomb.
The bomb, planted near the village of Blat north of the town of Merjayoun in the eastern sector of Israel's occupation zone, was promptly claimed by Hizbullah.
Speaking in Amman after talks with King Abdullah II, Mr Barak said he was determined to push ahead with peace negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians.
He stressed that his one-hour meeting with the king was focused on the Syrian and Palestinian tracks of the peace process as well as the latest wave of violence in Lebanon.
"Israel is going to hit whoever is hitting her in south Lebanon. It happened in the past and it is happening in the present," Mr Barak said before returning home. Hizbullah said in a terse communique: "The explosion caused many enemy casualties." This fatality brings to five the number of Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon since January 25th. Ten have been wounded. In 1999, 13 Israeli troops were killed and 52 injured; this was the lowest casualty figure since Israel established its so-called "security zone" in 1985.
Israeli helicopters went into action near the village of Jarjaua, bombing and strafing wadis used by the resistance to infiltrate the occupation zone.
Yesterday's attack is seen as retaliation for Friday's missile strike by an Israeli helicopter gunship on a car carrying a senior Hizbullah commander near the southern port city of Tyre.
The target was said to be either Mr Ibrahim Akl, overall commander of Hizbullah's military wing, or Mr Khalil Harb, commander of the western region. The officer and six civilians were wounded, including a woman and two children. Earlier in the day Israel's client South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia had evacuated and demolished a strategic hilltop outpost at Soujoud, one of Hizbullah's most frequent targets.
Israel's attempt on the Hizbullah officer followed a week of spectacularly successful resistance operations.
A "special squad" assassinated the western area commander of the SLA, Col Aql Hashem; another unit fired missiles at a fortified position near Beaufort Castle, killing three and wounding four Israeli soldiers; and an SLA engineer was killed by a roadside bomb near the Braachit compound at the edge of the Irish battalion's zone of operations.
On Saturday the secretary-general of Hizbullah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, honoured the unit which killed the SLA commander and threatened to retaliate against Israeli civilians if Israel harmed more Lebanese civilians, in breach of the 1996 understanding prohibiting attacks against civilians.
