By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jul 20, 2004
Two Israeli soldiers were killed Tuesday afternoon along the Jewish state’s northern border as IDF forces engaged in a heavy exchange of fire with Lebanon-based Islamic terrorists.
The cross-border violence erupted after snipers belonging to the Hizballah organization fired shots at an IDF border outpost.
An Israeli tank returned fire, killing at least one of the Arab gunmen.
Heavy Hizballah anti-aircraft fire then began to rain down on northern Israel, and was followed by retaliatory IAF helicopter gunship attacks on terrorist positions inside Lebanon.
Israel’s northern border region was placed on high alert, and the army closed all roads into the area.
Hizballah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said his group instigated hostilities with Israel in response to the death of a senior Hizballah terror boss in a Beirut car bombing Monday.
An unknown Sunni guerilla group claimed credit for the killing of Ghaleb Awali. Israel denied any involvement in his death.
Ma’ariv quoted one security official as saying Hizballah’s Nasrallah was “always seeking excuses in order to raise tensions between Israel and Lebanon.”
Lebanon and its Syrian overlords have long shirked their obligations under international law to disarm Hizballah – widely recognized as one of the world’s most dangerous Islamic terrorist organizations.