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12 - 18 October 2000
Issue No. 503
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Hizbullah on the move

By Dalal Saoud

Not far from Palestinian territories, where Israeli forces have been brutally repressing the Palestinian uprising, events on the Lebanese-Israeli frontier took a dramatic turn with Hizbullah's capture of three Israeli soldiers. Coinciding with protests along the border, Hizbullah's actions prompted a flurry of diplomacy.

Last Saturday, approximately 1,800 Palestinians from various refugee camps in Beirut and south Lebanon, gathered at the Ramia border gate to denounce the Israeli massacres in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.

The angry protesters, including women and children waving Palestinian flags and chanting Allahu Akbar (God is great), threw stones at Israeli soldiers on the other side of the fence. But what was planned as a peaceful demonstration soon turned bloody when Israeli soldiers fired on unarmed protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. Two Palestinians were killed and some 20 others were injured.

Leaders at Palestinian refugee camps accused Israeli soldiers of shooting to kill as they targeted protesters' heads and chests. It was the first time that Israeli soldiers used live ammunition against border protesters since the Israeli army withdrew from south Lebanon on 24 May, ending the 22-year occupation.

At almost the same time, at another location along the border, Hizbullah guerrillas clashed with an Israeli patrol at Shebaa Farms, an area in the south-eastern-most corner of Lebanon claimed by Israel. Under cover of gun fire, Hizbullah fighters lay in wait for an approaching military jeep which they showered with machine-gun fire and tear gas before capturing three soldiers and fleeing deep into Lebanese territory.

Responding promptly and harshly to this action, Israeli forces deployed helicopter gunships to bombard the area. For hours, the gunships pounded Shebaa Farms and the nearby village of Kfar Chouba, trapping many civilians in their cars on nearby roads. Some 25 Lebanese civilians injured during the shelling waited hours to be evacuated to hospitals by United Nations peace-keepers who had been unable to reach them.

A few hours after Hizbullah announced the capture of the Israeli soldiers and Israel confirmed the news, Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah proposed exchanging his prisoners for Lebanese and Palestinian detainees.

Nasrallah refused to divulge the whereabouts of the three Israeli soldiers saying "they are in a place that Israel cannot reach." The Hizbullah chief said Lebanese and Palestinians held in Israeli jails "are one of our responsibilities and we will never abandon them."

Nasrallah added that although Hizbullah had planned the kidnappings for a later date, his group decided to conduct the operation earlier to show solidarity with the new intifada in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak demanded the immediate release of the soldiers and held Syria and Lebanon responsible for their safety and any escalation of conflict along the border.

Concerned about the upheaval in the region, President Bill Clinton, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac telephoned Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad. For the United States, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright handled contacts with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Selim Hoss.

Putin dispatched his Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to the region for meetings with Al-Assad and Lahoud in their respective capitals. Ivanov told Al-Assad that Russia was "ready to work alongside the United States and Europe to spare the region from the danger of explosion."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, who visited Damascus on Monday, said Cairo would stand by Syria if it was attacked by Israel.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan headed to Israel and the Palestinian territories to urge Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to resume peace negotiations. In response to the situation in Lebanon, Annan directed his personal representative into the country, Rolf Knutsson, to join efforts to calm the situation along the border and to work to secure the release of the Israeli soldiers. Knutsson said after a meeting on Monday with Nasrallah that he was optimistic about a possible prisoner swap between Hizbullah and Israel.

Hizbullah representatives said that the only official communication they received concerning the swap was from the International Committee of the Red Cross. On Sunday, Red Cross representative in Lebanon, Henry Fournier, relayed a letter to Nasrallah from Israel and requested to meet the captured Israeli soldiers.

Mahmoud Sweid, director of the Beirut-based Institute of Palestinian Studies, suggested that Israel will probably cooperate in a prisoner swap. Thus, he said, Hizbullah's actions are unlikely to lead to a war in the region. Commenting on calls to resume attacks from Lebanon on Israel, Sweid said the Palestinian protests along the Lebanese border were linked to the intifada "but things will not go as far as opening this front to launch military operations."

Fearing that such operations might occur, Knutsson reiterated the UN's request to President Lahoud to send additional Lebanese troops to south Lebanon. In the four-and-a-half months since Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon, a 1,000-member Lebanese security force has been sent to the area. The government has refrained from sending regular army troops to the area near the border, arguing that the Lebanese army will not act as border guards for Israel.

Related stories:
Guerrillas on extended leave 27 July - 2 August 2000
The greater Jihad 8 - 14 June 2000
Making Lebanon whole again 1 - 7 June 2000
Liberation 25 - 31 May 2000
Focus on Palestine
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