israelinsider: security: Tension on the northern border after IAF raid

Tension on the northern border after IAF raid
By Ellis Shuman July 2, 2001


		07/02 Car bombs explode in Israel CNN 07/02 No escalation expected after IAF hits Syrian radar Jerusalem Post 07/01 Israel strikes Syrian post in Lebanon Washington Post



			IAF strike - Hizbullah attack


			Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah
			Shaul Mofaz


		Hizbullah


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Israeli soldiers at an army position near Mount Dov yesterday. (Reuters)


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Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz has cut short his official visit to the United States and is returning to Israel due to heightened tensions on Israel's northern border. Yesterday Israeli jets struck a Syrian radar station in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in retaliation for a Hizbullah missile attack on Friday, which wounded two IDF soldiers. The Hizbullah responded by launching a mortar barrage on Israeli positions on Mount Dov. No casualties were reported and IDF forces returned fire (map).

Israel forces along the border are on a higher-than-

"We always knew that if Hizbullah hit the Israelis, then we would get hit back"
- Syrian soldier

normal alert, but military assessments are that the latest round of attacks is over. No special precautions have been ordered for civilians living in Israel's north, despite Hizbullah threats to launch additional retaliatory attacks. Hizbullah's secretary-general, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel that "it was playing with fire." Nasrallah said that the Hizbullah would respond to the IAF strike "in a clear way… [that] will be different than the way we have dealt with it in the past."

IDF will not tolerate Hizbullah attacks
The Israeli Air Force strike followed a Security Cabinet decision to send a strong message to the Syrians for their alleged role in encouraging and sponsoring Hizbullah activities. A statement issued by the IDF spokesman said the army would "not tolerate continuing attacks by Hizbullah on Israel… and [would] take the necessary steps to ensure quiet and security on the northern border."

Shortly before noon yesterday two Air Force Phantom jets launched missiles at the Syrian radar station in Israel's first major military action in the north since a similar attack on a Syrian station on the Beirut-Damascus highway in April. At least three soldiers -- two Syrian and one Lebanese -- were wounded in yesterday's attack.

Lebanon's Daily Star reported that "two radar dishes, perched on an earthen mound and surrounded by underground bunkers, were completely destroyed in the raid." Syrian and Lebanese soldiers guarded the entrance of the base and refused to allow journalists to approach the site.

"We always knew that if Hizbullah hit the Israelis, then we would get hit back," said one Syrian soldier, quoted in the Lebanese paper.

According to an analysis written by Ha'aretz correspondent Ze'ev Schiff, "Israel had anticipated a new Hizbullah attack against the Shebaa Farms area." Schiff added that Israel had warned the Syrian leadership through a number of channels that new attacks by the Hizbullah would bring additional strikes against Syrian targets in Lebanon. According to Schiff, French officials relayed the message to Syrian President Bashar Assad during his visit to Paris last week.

Arieh O'Sullivan wrote in the Jerusalem Post that the air raid "was a clear message that Israel has adopted a zero-tolerance policy, and that the first air raid in April was no fluke." Syria responded to yesterday's attack by declaring it "retained the right to respond."

The Daily Star concurred with Israeli military assessments when it reported today that "the prospect of further violence appeared to fade Sunday night." The paper reported that "Lebanon had received a message from the US Embassy indicating that Israel had no intention of mounting a second air strike in retaliation for Hizbullah's bombardment in the Shebaa Farms."