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Israel Soldiers Wounded in Lebanon Border Explosions Tied to Hezbollah Hezbollah Attack Wounds 2 Israeli Soldiers on Lebanon Border
(about 1 hour later)
JERUSALEM — Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group, claimed responsibility for two explosions on the Israeli border on Tuesday that wounded two Israeli soldiers. The attack follows a period of relative quiet on the Lebanese-Israeli border dating to 2006, when Israel fought a monthlong war against Hezbollah. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group, claimed responsibility for an explosion on Tuesday in a disputed area along the border with Israel that wounded two Israeli soldiers. The attack ended months of relative quiet on the border, where a cease-fire has largely held since Israel fought a monthlong war against Hezbollah in 2006.
Israel responded with artillery fire aimed at two Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said. Israel responded with artillery fire toward two Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli military. The military said that two blasts had occurred, but that the second caused no injuries.
“The Lebanese government and Hezbollah are directly liable for this blatant breach of Israel’s sovereignty,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli Army spokesman, said Tuesday. He said the military had “responded to this unprovoked aggression against its forces and will continue to operate in order to maintain the safety of the northern border of Israel.” Hezbollah’s Al Manar channel said the group had detonated an explosive device in Shebaa Farms, a disputed area that Lebanon considers occupied by Israel and that is also claimed by Syria.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said, a routine patrol identified suspects crossing the border from Lebanon into Israeli territory and opened fire, causing them to flee back into Lebanon. The Lebanese Army offered a different account, saying Israeli forces had opened fire at one of its positions, injuring one Lebanese soldier. Hezbollah did not cite a reason for the attack, but noted that it was carried out by a unit named after “the martyr Hassan Ali Haidar.” Mr. Haidar was a Hezbollah military operative who was killed in September when an Israeli drone detonated a spying device he was dismantling in the southern coastal town of Adloun, Lebanese news media reported.
Israeli experts have attributed the occasional violence in the north to spillover from the turmoil in Syria, where Hezbollah is fighting to shore up an ally, the government of President Bashar al-Assad, in its struggle against rebel forces. Hezbollah and Israel have largely sought to keep the border calm amid chaos elsewhere in the region, and the quick claim of responsibility, less than four hours after the blast, came as a surprise. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for several rocket attacks in recent years across the border into Israel, which were probably carried out by Palestinian militant groups.
In March, a bomb was detonated against Israeli forces along the frontier in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, wounding four, and another bomb was detonated against an Israeli Army vehicle patrolling Israel’s border with Lebanon, damaging the vehicle. Those attacks were seen as possible attempts by Hezbollah to exact revenge for airstrikes against weapons convoys and stores that were attributed to Israel. Hezbollah’s popularity in the wider Arab world, which soared after Israel failed to achieve its goals in the 2006 war, has fallen sharply. Many in the Sunni Arab majority view it as siding with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria against a Sunni-led insurgency.
The group is already fighting on two fronts: It is battling insurgents in Syria alongside Syrian security forces and fending off spillover attacks from the Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front insurgent group, which attacked Hezbollah positions on the Syrian-Lebanese border over the weekend.
Hezbollah is keeping a wary eye on advances by Nusra along the border with the Golan Heights. It has portrayed groups like Nusra as serving the goals of Israel and the West — to weaken the Syrian government and its alliance with Hezbollah and Iran, and to divert attention from Israel and its conflicts with Hezbollah and the Palestinians.
The attack Tuesday may have been an attempt by Hezbollah to assert its presence on the border, or to send a message to Israel that it is not handicapped by its fight in Syria. Hezbollah’s leaders have consistently said that the fight in Syria does not detract from its ability to deter Israel on the southern border.
The blasts came after a confrontation on Sunday, when, the Israeli military said, a routine patrol identified suspects crossing the border from Lebanon into Israeli territory and opened fire, causing the suspects to flee back into Lebanon. The Lebanese Army offered a different account of that event, saying Israeli forces had opened fire at one of its positions, injuring one Lebanese soldier.
Israeli experts have attributed the occasional violence in the north to spillover from the turmoil in Syria.
In March a bomb was detonated against Israeli forces along the frontier in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, wounding four, and another bomb was detonated against an Israeli Army vehicle patrolling Israel’s border with Lebanon, damaging the vehicle. Those attacks were seen as possible attempts by Hezbollah to exact revenge for airstrikes against weapons convoys and stores that were attributed to Israel.
“The Lebanese government and Hezbollah are directly liable for this blatant breach of Israel’s sovereignty,” Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said Tuesday, commenting on the latest attack. He said the military “responded to this unprovoked aggression against its forces and will continue to operate in order to maintain the safety of the northern border of Israel.”