Israel's brutal response to the kidnapping of one of its soldiers by Palestinian militants has touched off what looks for all the world like all out war in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli assault has even included overflying the home of the president of Syria -- an interesting non-sequitor. Now, enter Hezbollah from Lebanon.
JERUSALEM, July 12 – The Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah on Wednesday morning seized two Israeli soldiers in a brazen raid along Israel’s border with Lebanon. Israel immediately responded by sending an armored force into southern Lebanon for the first time in six years.
The clashes dramatically escalated tensions at a time when Israel already is waging a military offensive in the Gaza Strip to seek the return of another soldier held by Palestinian militants for more than two weeks.
Israel’s defense minister, Amir Peretz, said in a statement that the Lebanese government “is directly responsible for the fate of the soldiers and must act immediately to locate them, prevent any harm to them and return them to Israel.”
Also, Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, scheduled an emergency Cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening to assess the developments.
The fighting erupted when Hezbollah attacked northern Israel with rocket fire on Wednesday morning, injuring several Israeli civilians in the northwestern town of Shlomi, the Israeli military said. Israel responded with artillery fire and air strikes that targeted Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon. Later, Israeli troops moved into southern Lebanon in the first such incursion since Israel pulled its troops out of the region in 2000.
The Israeli military did not immediately provide details on the border clashes.
While cross-border shooting exchanges break out with some frequency, it has been exceedingly rare for Hezbollah and the Israeli military to come face-to-face on the ground over the past six years.
But Hezbollah said its fighters seized two soldiers along the volatile and heavily guarded frontier between Israel and Lebanon. “The two captives were transferred to a safe place,” the group said in a statement.
In the past, Hezbollah has launched attacks against Israel when there is heavy fighting between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The latest assault comes at a moment when the region is already roiling with the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in Gaza.
Early Wednesday, Israeli troops moved in force into central Gaza, expanding the two-week-old Israeli offensive intended to secure the release of the captured soldier and stop rocket fire into Israel.
The Israeli air force also dropped a powerful bomb on a home in Gaza City at 3 around a.m., saying it targeted senior Hamas leaders. But the blast killed nine members of the Abu Selmiya family, according to Dr. Juma Saqqa, the spokesman for Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken. There were visiting Hamas leaders in the house at the time of the bombing, but they escaped with only minor injuries, Palestinians said.
Nabil Abu Selmiya, a Hamas leader, was killed along with his wife, Salwa, and seven of their children, ages 7 to 18, Dr. Saqqa said. The couple also had two sons who survived the attack, and a married daughter who lives elsewhere.
What next, Israelis? How many simultaneous wars are you going to fight? Is the goal to try and topple not only the Hamas government in the Palestinian territories, but also the government of Syria?
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
