Schermutselingen aan de Israelisch-Libanese grens

[VandeWiel]

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee says he has put a hold on U.S. military aid to Lebanon amid growing concern in Congress that the Lebanese army could threaten Israel.

Rep. Howard Berman said Monday he placed a hold on $100 million in assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces on Aug. 2 because he was concerned about influence the militant group Hezbollah (hez-BUH'-lah) may have in the army.

The California Democrat said his concern was reinforced a day later when Lebanese soldiers shot and killed an Israeli officer on the Israel-Lebanon border.

In announcing the hold, Berman joined other lawmakers in calling on the Obama administration to review the provision of weapons and training to the Lebanese military.

Bron: Associated Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBvCxlK6YMrSDIgr5B0jeAWlfljgD9HG74182

[VandeWiel]

Debka:

Israel is to move large tank, armored infantry and artillery up north as an extra warning to Tehran, Damascus and Beirut not to let their crises spill over to Israel's borders or generate a repeat of the Aug. 3 military clash in which Lt. Col. Dov Harari was killed by a Lebanese sniper.

Monday night, the Israeli military unusually warned citizens and motorists they would have to put up with heavy military traffic on the northern highways leading from the center of the country to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Upper Galilee and the Golan - in particular Route 71 linking Afulah and Bet Shean, and Routes 90 and 92 which circle the lake and reach the Galilee Panhandle. They were advised to avoid the roads leading up to the Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese borders.

Ik heb de standaard propaganda maar niet meer geplaatst, maar dit deel is belangrijk en aannemelijk. Een dergelijke oefening en verplaatsing staat gelijk met een regelrechte oorlogsvoorbereiding of dreiging daarmee.

[VandeWiel]

En nu maar hopen dat dit niet verder uit de hand loopt. Het klinkt iig vrij serieus. Er is al een tijdje gerommel dat Hezbollah zich misschien zal gaan roeren in verband met het Hariri proces en de mogelijkheid dat Syrie op Arabische aanbiedingen ingaat om meer samen te gaan werken.

[VandeWiel]

The border tensions brewing for weeks on the Lebanese-Israel border boiled over Tuesday, Aug. 3 into a heavy exchange of cross-border fire. Lt. Col. Dov Harari, 45, from Netanya, brigade commander of the eastern Lebanese sector was killed in a surprise Lebanese cross-border attack.  He was killed by what Maj. Gen. Gady Eisencott, OC Northern Command, later called one of two, well-planned, unprovoked "sniper ambushes" set by the Lebanese army - one against a group of Israeli officers standing behind the border fence and the second an RPG attack on an Israeli tank. An Israeli major was seriously injured. Doctors are fighting for his life.

Lebanon reported three soldiers and one civilian killed in Israel's heavy retaliation for the attack.


Israel has complained to the UN.

Maj. Gen. Eisencott described the incident, the most serious since the end of the 2006 war with Hizballah, as follows:  At around noon Tuesday, Israeli forces were cutting down small trees near Kibbutz Misgav Am on our side of the border. "Their officers were watching the work from a forward command post 200-300 meters behind the border when all of a sudden Lebanese forces suddenly started shooting without any sort of provocation."

Israel decided on all-out retaliation because the attack was so completely unprovoked, he said, referring to the tank, artillery and helicopter fire the IDF launched against Lebanese army positions. When the Lebanese commanders asked for a ceasefire to evacuate their wounded, "We acceded to their request but then too they shelled one of our tanks. The tank gun fired on the shooters."


DEBKAfile reported earlier:

The incident flared when Lebanese troops ordered Israeli soldiers to stop clearing trees and installing a surveillance camera on the border fence near Kibbutz Misgav-Am opposite the Lebanese village of Adeisseh. They accused the Israeli soldiers of encroaching on Lebanese territory. When the Israelis replied they had kept to their own side of the border and refused to back down, the Lebanese started shooting, using mortars and RPGs.

The possibility that the Lebanese soldiers who opened fire were Hizballah gunmen disguised in military uniform is still under investigation.
All Lebanese units in the south went on full alert when President Michel Suleiman, at two p.m. called on the Lebanese people to be prepared to lay down their lives to defend their country and UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which terminated the 2006 war with Israel.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu urgently consulted with security chiefs on Israel's response to the Lebanese attack. 
The Israeli complaint to the United Nations holds the Lebanese government responsible for attacking Israeli troops whose work on the Israeli side of the border was coordinated with UN peacekeepers.

According to DEBKAfile's military sources, the clash was staged deliberately by the Lebanese side to divert attention from the radical change in the balance of power in Beirut as a result of President Bashar Assad's abrupt switch of patronage from Hizballah's Hassan Nasrallah to Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri.   

It coincided with a 'major speech' expected later Tuesday by Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian-backed Hizballah, and came a day after six missiles were fired towards the Jordanian port of Aqaba and Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, killing one Jordanian.


http://www.debka.com/article/8947/

[VandeWiel]

Lebanese president: Stand up to Israel
Michel Suleiman vows to stand up to Israel 'at any price,' says Israel violated UN resolution


Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has vowed to "stand up to Israel's violation of Resolution 1701, whatever the price" following the border flare-up between the Lebanese and Israeli armies Tuesday.

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed and four were wounded after the IDF struck a post near the southern Lebanese border village of Adaisseh, witnesses and security sources said. An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a Lebanese army post near Adaisseh, destroying an armoured personnel carrier, a Lebanese security source said.

A Lebanese journalist was also killed in the skirmish, local sources said.

However, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it "holds the Lebanese government responsible for the serious incident and warns against repercussions should such violations continue."

"Israel views the attack on an IDF force that operated in coordination with UNIFIL in the border area in recent hours a blatant violation of Security Council Resolution 1701," the Foreign Ministry said in a mission.

Meanwhile, Israel's UN mission plans to file a complaint on the matter with the organization's chief and with the Security Council.

IDF, Hezbollah exchange threats
Israel marked four years to the Second Lebanon War last month as tensions grew on the northern border amid fears that Hezbollah may seek to prompt a regional flare-up.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague's plan to indict senior Hezbollah officials over the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has caused growing concern among local leaders this may prompt the Shiite group to respond with violence in order to undermine stability in the region.

About three weeks ago, the IDF published photos of Hezbollah's massive military buildup in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel. Aerial photos of an area village showed sites where, according to the army, Hezbollah had been accumulating various weapons.

Colonel Ronen Merli, commander of the Western Division on the northern border, said at the time that given Hezbollah's preparations, "an incident may take place today or in a year. I'm prepared for this to happen by surprise without being told about it."

"We're operating in various ways in order to thwart any incident, and if one does take place, we'll know how to handle it," he said.


Later, Hezbollah responded to Israel's charges, with a senior group figure warning that "the enemy's leadership should know that we too have a target bank."

"They know well that all their threats shall go down in the face of the surprises prepared by the resistance," he said.


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3929584,00.html