Israeli helicopter gunships and tanks fired on Hezbollah guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon yesterday, killing one guerrilla, Lebanese officials reported.
A Hezbollah spokesman confirmed the death of the guerrilla.
Witnesses in southern Lebanon said two Israeli helicopters fired two rockets at the guerrilla positions near the border village of Aita Shaab, some 15km southeast of the coastal city of Tyre.
The renewed fighting came amid heightened tension between Israel and Hezbollah along the border in southern Lebanon that followed a Beirut bombing on Monday that killed a veteran Hezbollah commander. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the assassination.
The security officials said an Israeli tank opened fire on a Hezbollah position near Aita el-Shaab, killing a Hezbollah guerrilla.
The guerrillas returned fire at Israeli positions across the border. Israeli helicopter gunships later scrambled into the air, firing missiles at the source of fire, the officials said.
Earlier, Israeli missiles twice hit a Gaza militants' safe house, wounding five, a spokesman for a Palestinian group said, the first Israeli air strikes there since internal turmoil broke out over the weekend.
In a related development, Is-rael's moderate Labor Party on Monday demanded legislation to back up Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan as part of its price for shoring up his shaky government.
The two air strikes, one on Monday afternoon and the second after midnight, targeted the same house in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City, said witnesses and a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committee.
The spokesman, Abu Abir, said the house was used by Abed Quka, the group's leader in northern Gaza. He was wounded in the first attack.
In other violence on Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian in a refugee camp next to the West Bank city of Nablus at nightfall. Palestinians said he was throwing rocks at soldiers. The Israeli military said he was holding a rifle.
The air strike came as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat moved to defuse three days of tension and violence over his appointment of a relative, Moussa Arafat, as head of security in Gaza.
On Monday, Arafat reinstated the officer his relative replaced -- Abdel Razek al-Majaide -- but retained Moussa Arafat in a powerful position, satisfying some of his critics but infuriating others.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said on Monday he was intent on resigning but made no move to leave office.
He told reporters that in a phone call to Arafat, he said, ``It is time to reactivate all our security branches based on the correct principles. It is now time to appoint the right man to the right position.''
Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erakat said Arafat and other Palestinian leaders would meet in an emergency session yesterday to decide Qureia's fate.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS