Mohammed Zaatari| The Daily Star
MARJAYOUN, Lebanon: Israel appeared hesitant to escalate a standoff with Hezbollah after the party’s guerrillas killed at least two soldiers in an ambush in Lebanon’s occupied Shebaa Farms Wednesday in response to the Jewish state’s deadly strike in Syria last week.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for “maximum calm and restraint,” urging all sides to “act responsibly to prevent any escalation in an already tense regional environment,” a U.N. statement said.
The United Nations Security Council, which convened in an emergency meeting, strongly condemned the killing of a Spanish peacekeeper in south Lebanon, while Spain held Israel responsible for his death.
The United States condemned Hezbollah’s attack but urged both sides “to refrain from any action that could escalate the situation.”
Hezbollah fighters attacked an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, south Lebanon, killing at least two soldiers and wounding seven.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said that the Israeli convoy, comprising more than nine vehicles, was ambushed on a curve leading to the occupied Bustra farm, east of the area of Majidieh.
Al-Manar said anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah fighters damaged nine vehicles, killing and wounding the soldiers inside.
The Israeli army confirmed the death of two soldiers, adding that seven others were wounded.
The Israeli military said five anti-tank missiles hit the soldiers as they were traveling near the Shebaa Farms.
The soldiers were in two unarmored white vehicles without military insignia when they were struck from a distance of about 5 kilometers away, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.
According to Israeli media, a number of Israeli Army troops were being treated with “light-to-moderate wounds” at a hospital in Safed.
The operation came 10 days after an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra, in the Golan Heights, killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack.
“At 11:25 [a.m.] the Qunaitra Martyrs unit targeted with appropriate missile weapons an Israeli military convoy comprising several vehicles and [transporting] Zionist officers and soldiers, causing the destruction of several vehicles and inflicting many casualties on the enemy,” Hezbollah said in a brief statement.
Hezbollah considers that the Lebanese government’s policy statement, stating that “Lebanese people have the right to resist Israeli occupation, repel its aggression and reclaim occupied territories,” bestows legitimacy on its resistance operations.
In the aftermath of the attack, Prime Minister Tammam Salam called on the international community to restrain Israel from carrying out attacks against Lebanon, stressing his government was committed to U.N. Resolution 1701, which put an end to the 2006 war with Israel.
“Lebanon places the international community in front of their responsibilities and urges them to restrain Israel’s tendency to gamble with the region’s security and stability,” Salam said in a statement.
“Lebanon reaffirms its commitment to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 in all its clauses, and its appreciation of the efforts deployed by UNIFIL peacekeepers,” Salam added.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, warned that Hezbollah would pay the “full price” for the operation.
“Those behind today’s attack will pay the full price,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying at a meeting with Israeli’s top security brass in the evening.
“The government of Lebanon and the Assad regime share responsibility for the consequences of attacks originating in their territory against the state of Israel,” he said.
The U.S. condemned Hezbollah’s attack, saying it supported Israel’s right to self-defense.
“We support Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense and continue to urge all parties to respect the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
“We urge all parties to refrain from any action that could escalate the situation,” Psaki said, adding that Washington was closely monitoring the situation.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council in a letter that the Jewish state would take all necessary measures to defend itself.
“Israel will not stand by as Hezbollah targets Israelis,” Ron Prosor wrote in the letter, which was also sent to Ban.
Prosor also demanded that the council condemn Hezbollah and take steps to press Lebanon to disarm the group, as outlined in U.N. resolutions.
Spain’s ambassador to the United Nations, meanwhile, blamed Israel for the death of the Spanish peacekeeper.
“It was because of this escalation of violence, and it came from the Israeli side,” Spanish Ambassador Roman Oyarzun Marchesi told reporters.
The U.N. peacekeeper has been identified as Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, 36, and U.N. officials have said only that the cause of his death is under investigation.
The Security Council condemned the killing of the peacekeeper in the strongest terms and offered its deepest sympathies.
AP quoted a diplomat present at the council meeting as saying that senior peacekeeping official Edmond Mulet told council members that the attacks were a “serious violation” of cease-fire agreements and that UNIFIL had launched an investigation.
Meanwhile in Beirut, the Future parliamentary bloc voiced its opposition to implicating Lebanon in matters which did not serve the country’s interests, stressing that no party had the right to hijack the decision of war and peace from the government.
In a statement after its weekly meeting, the bloc said that the security of Lebanon and safety of the Lebanese should be a priority for all Lebanese parties, who should fully respect U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.
A security source told The Daily Star that 50 shells were fired from the Israeli side across the Lebanese border following the midday attack, while Hezbollah responded by firing several rockets at Israeli positions in the area.
UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said the peacekeeping force commander was in “close contact” with Lebanon and Israel and was “actively engaged with all the parties, urging restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation.”
No shelling was heard after calls for restraint came out around 2 p.m. However, Israeli warplanes still hovered overhead.
The source said at least eight shells landed in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, and several others crashed into nearby Majidieh, a town mainly comprised primarily of agricultural land along the Wazzani River and opposite occupied Ghajar.
Israeli media said that in the wake of the exchange of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli troops, the Israeli army suspended drilling along the Lebanese border in search for Hezbollah tunnels.
Israeli military sources had told The Jerusalem Post that the search operation came in response to local residents’ fears about the possibility of a Hezbollah attack in the area after the Qunaitra strike.
Schools in Khiam, Mari and Ain Arab closed and Syrian refugees were relocating to a safer region in anticipation of an escalation.
In Beirut, celebratory gunfire could be heard in the afternoon.