Peter Hirschberg
in Jerusalem
Israel yesterday appeared to be sticking to the unspoken rules of low-grade engagement on its border with Lebanon, when its warplanes hit Hizbullah targets a day after an Israeli soldier was killed and another seriously wounded by a rocket fired by members of the Shia guerilla group. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Israeli leaders blamed Syria, which is the main powerbroker in Lebanon, saying it was responsible for Monday's attack by Hizbullah on an Israeli bulldozer as it was clearing a series of roadside bombs laid by the group on the border. "If President Assad thinks he's going to use Hizbullah as the long arm in the fight against us, he should know that our response will be very clear," Israeli Foreign Minister Mr Silvan Shalom said.
But, unlike in October last year when Israeli warplanes struck guerilla training bases near Damascus after an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber killed 22 Israelis - the organisation has offices in the Syrian capital - the planes yesterday did not stray into Syrian territory.
Military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to confine Israel's retaliation to Hizbullah targets, was to ensure the situation in the area was not inflamed further. In fact, there have been no major flare-ups since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in May 2000.
The latest Israel-Hizbullah skirmish comes against the backdrop of overtures by Syrian President Bashar Assad to Jerusalem to renew peace talks. So far, Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon has responded with little enthusiasm, saying on Monday that Israelis should know that the price of peace with Damascus was a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights - a price he apparently considers too high.
Some Israeli observers suggested yesterday that the Hizbullah attack was also a message to Damascus because of Mr Assad's efforts to court Israel.
Israeli troops and police, meanwhile, yesterday destroyed a wooden structure being used as a synagogue at an illegal outpost in the West Bank. Scuffles broke out as some 150 settlers confronted the security forces at West Tapuah.
The outpost is just one of dozens that settlers have erected in the past three years and which the road map peace plan requires Israel to dismantle. The government has demolished about a dozen outposts since mid-2003, but the settlers have since built a similar number.
In southern Gaza, Israeli army bulldozers were also at work, tearing down Palestinian homes in the Rafah refugee camp, close to the border with Egypt. Reports of the number of homes destroyed ranged from 15 to 30. Rafah governor Mr Majed Agha said that some 400 people had been made homeless.
Since the start of the intifada over three years ago, the Israeli army has destroyed hundreds of homes in Rafah, leaving thousands homeless, on the grounds that the buildings are used to give cover to gunmen.