Members of the elite commando unit 262, wearing Lebanese army uniforms, were dropped from CH-53 helicopters at dawn and encountered Hezbollah fighters near the village of Boudai, 16 miles west of the Syrian border.
One Israeli officer was killed and two others were wounded in the ensuing battle. A Lebanese security official said three Hezbollah fighters were killed and three wounded.
The commandos’ official mission was to disrupt the group’s arms supplies, but Israeli sources suggested that the troops might have tried to kidnap Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, 56, a senior Hezbollah cleric who lives in Boudai.
He could have been used as a bargaining chip for the release of two Israeli soldiers captured last month.
It was the first offensive Israeli operation since the ceasefire took effect last Monday and Lebanon reacted furiously, lodging a complaint with the UN and threatening to halt its army’s deployment in the south of the country.
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“The landing carried out by the Israeli occupation forces today in the Bekaa was a flagrant violation of the cessation of hostilities,” said Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister. The UN also condemned the raid.
Israel sent in the commandos after its military intelligence warned that Hezbollah was already replenishing its stockpile of rockets, prompting ministers to order fresh airstrikes against vehicles suspected of transporting weapons to Lebanon.
The Israeli air force was flying round-the-clock missions over Lebanon this weekend. Israeli intelligence claims that Syria resumed its supply of rockets as soon as the ceasefire began. “They are preparing for round two and they’ll do it with all their strength,” said a military source.
The Israeli government is determined not to allow Iran to rebuild its “southern division”, as it dubs Hezbollah. “What we have seen in the past five weeks is only a promo for the big one, when Israel will be engaged in a war with Syria and Iran,” one Israeli source predicted.
Meanwhile, Israel yesterday seized Nasser al-Shaer, the Palestinian deputy prime minister and a top official of the Hamas militant group. Shaer was arrested at his home in the West Bank. Hours later a Palestinian killed an Israeli soldier in a drive-by shooting near the West Bank city of Nablus.
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Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, had indicated last week that he was shelving plans to withdraw from parts of the West Bank.