Israel, Hezbollah play wait-and-see

February 10, 2000
Web posted at: 1:14 a.m. EST (0614 GMT)

In this story: Barak under pressure to prevent escalation Iraq, EU condemn Israeli attacks RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

JERUSALEM -- An uneasy calm descended on the Israeli-occupied zone in southern Lebanon, and Israelis were told to leave the bunkers they had entered as shelter from possible Hezbollah guerrilla attacks.

"Residents of the north are permitted to leave the shelters and security rooms," the Israeli army said in a statement early Thursday.

TRANSCRIPT Text of Albright interview on CNN's World View     MESSAGE BOARD Airstrikes in Lebanon

Israeli jets and artillery struck again at Hezbollah bases in Lebanon on Thursday, but the attacks were confined to the northern edge of Israel's self-proclaimed buffer zone. The raids marked the 12th straight day of Israeli bombardment of guerrilla positions in the region.

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy had warned Lebanon on Wednesday of severe repercussions if Hezbollah fired missiles at civilian targets in Israel."(If) Katyushas fall on our settlements, the soil of Lebanon will burn," he said.

Early Wednesday, four Lebanese civilians were wounded in Israeli air attacks on suspected Hezbollah bases in the southern city of Tyre and two villages southeast of Nabatiyeh.

On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes hit civilian electric power facilities, leaving much of Lebanon without electricity and heat. Fifteen people were wounded in that attack.

The air attacks were triggered by Hezbollah attacks that killed six Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah's allies, including those in Syria and Lebanon, have been urged by the United States to persuade Hezbollah to scale down attacks on Israeli soldiers. However, Arab diplomats said the ball is now in Israel's court to prevent the recent skirmishes from snowballing into large-scale war.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who visited an army outpost overlooking south Lebanon on Wednesday, is under pressure to prevent escalation of Israel's battle with Hezbollah and avoid civilian casualties.

He issued emergency orders to the police to ensure that everyone at the Israel-Lebanese border takes to the shelters in anticipation of Hezbollah reprisals at night.

But no Hezbollah missile attacks in Israeli towns such as Kiryat Shemona have been recently reported.

Israel still says it is going to withdraw from occupied southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Iraq condemned Israel's bombing of Lebanon on Wednesday, saying peace talks never will change the Israeli policy toward Arabs.

"Iraq categorically condemned the Zionist aggression against Lebanon," the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) quoted a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture and Information as saying. "All its slogans of a peaceful settlement are nothing but a means to reinforce its occupation of Arab land."

The European Union criticized Israel for causing civilian casualties with bomb attacks in Lebanon and said the violence could endanger the Middle East peace process.

"The European Union has been following very closely the situation in southern Lebanon and expresses its deep concern at the escalation of the hostilities, its regret at the deaths and injuries which this has caused," it said.

Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walter Rodgers, Cairo Bureau Chief Ben Wedeman, Correspondent Jerrold Kessel and Reuters contributed to this report.

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CIA World Factbook: Lebanon

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