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October 7, 2003
Soldier killed by Hizbullah fire
Arieh O’Sullivan
Israel’s northern border was tense Tuesday with the IDF on high alert following several days of violence in which an IDF soldier was killed in an exchange of gunfire along the border fence with Lebanon near Metulla and IAF warplanes expanded the war on terrorism by striking deep inside Syria.
The dead soldier was identified as Staff Sergeant David Solomonov, 21, from Kfar Sava. Solomonov was to be released from the army in in a week. He is scheduled to be buried on Wednesday.
Five mortar shells landed west of Kiryat Shmona on the Israel-Lebanon border overnight Monday, Army Radio reported. No injuries were reported.
An military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, blamed the attack which killed the soldier, on Hizbullah, the anti-Israeli militant guerrilla group active in south Lebanon. But Hizbullah said in a one-sentence statement faxed to The Associated Press in Beirut that it was not involved in Monday’s shootings.
"An Israeli soldier was killed tonight while on operational duty south of the Fatma gate, on the Israeli-Lebanese border," an Israeli military spokesman said in a statement.
The spokesman said the soldier was killed after Israeli forces came under light weapon fire from Lebanese territory.
The attack, which Israeli military officials also linked to Syria, escalated tensions in the region following Israel’s air strike Sunday on what the Jewish state said was a training camp near the Syrian capital, Damascus, for Palestinian militants.
The Associated Press reports that Israeli soldiers yelled at reporters and Lebanese soldiers who arrived at the scene about an hour after the shooting and ordered them to leave the area.
One of the Lebanese soldiers replied, "This is Lebanese territory. We are not leaving," according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
Israeli soldiers shouted back in Arabic, "Go away before we shoot you," the reporter who witnessed the argument said.
While eight soldiers have been killed and 46 wounded since Israel pulled out of Lebanon in May 2000, shootings along the border near Metulla have been very rare.
The shooting came a day after Israeli warplanes bombed an Iranian-backed terrorist training camp deep in Syria, the army said Sunday, in response to a suicide bombing in Haifa that killed 19, including four children.
The strike, Israel’s first on Syrian soil in more than two decades, marks a considerable "notch up" in Israel’s war on terrorism, which has now expanded beyond the borders of the Territories. It was approved by the highest levels following consultations through the night by the defense establishment.
The air strike that took place at 4:30 a.m. Sunday was against the Ein Tzahab base used by Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists.
"Syria has been warned more than once by the United States that it should close all the facilities of the Islamic Jihad,‘ said government spokesman Avi Pazner. ’Apparently it has not done so. And it is our policy after what happened yesterday to go after Islamic Jihad wherever they are."
The Ein Tzahab base, a safe haven and training camp for Islamic Jihad terrorists, is said to be sponsored by Iran and Syria. The base is 22 kilometers (14 miles) northwest of Damascus.
"Following the attack, the army has started operating against those behind the attack, those who support (terror) and those who use the strategy of terror in order to harm citizens of Israel," the army said in a statement.
The army would not say if other forces beside the warplanes were involved in the strike on the training base.
Military sources said the base at Ein Tzahab was used to train Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas groups. Recruits there are taught how to assemble bombs, conduct guerrilla warfare, learn usage of artillery and even get aviation instruction.
Some men training at the base were slated to return to the Palestinian Authority to set up operational terrorist cells, military sources said. Others were activists from Lebanon and Syria who were to buffer the terror groups’ ranks there.
Islamic Jihad, which is responsible for many attacks against Israel, enjoys support from other countries, including Iran and Syria, the statement said.
"Syria is a state that supports terror, that constantly tries to frustrate efforts to bring calm and stability to the region and gives cover in its territory and capital to the terror organizations that act against Israeli citizens,‘ the army said. ’Iran is funding and directing the organizations."
The army said Israel will not accept the rules of the game that the terrorists are trying to dictate, and "will act with determination against all who harm its citizens, in accordance with the right to self defense and defense of the state."
Israel has accused Syria of harboring Islamic Jihad, Hamas and PFLP terrorist groups, a charge Syria has denied, saying it has officially closed down their offices — mainly due to US pressure.
Nevertheless, Islamic Jihad leaders like Ramadan Abdallah Shalah continue to enjoy immunity in Damascus. Security sources said Hamas leaders in Damascus are behind the funding and recruitment of Palestinians undergoing training in Hizbullah camps, where they have learned such skills as assembling suicide bomb belts, kidnapping techniques and spying.
In 2001, Israeli warplanes blasted a Syrian radar station in Lebanon, where Syria is the main power broker, killing three Syrian soldiers. That strike was the first in five years against the Syrian military and came in retaliation for an attack by Syrian-backed guerrillas in which an Israeli soldier was killed.
Even though the strike on Syria appeared a dramatic escalation in Israel’s strategy against terrorism, it does not rule out further retaliation inside the territories and abroad for Saturday’s bloody suicide bombing in Haifa.
Monday night, the IDF Spokesman released a detailed map delineating the homes and offices of terrorist operatives in Damascus and its environs.
Under pressure from the United States, Syria President Bashar Assad ordered the offices of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas to be shut following the US invasion of Iraq.
"The Syrians are good at playing games. When US Secretary of State Colin Powell was there they shouted ’aye’ and made some cosmetic moves to show as if they were shutting down the terror offices. But they just reopened under different names and locations," said Yoram Schweitzer, an expert on international terrorism at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank affiliated with Tel Aviv University.
"The Syrians will likely take a more cautionary role now and make some temporary changes as if they are really closing down the terrorist offices. But would you buy a used car from them?" Schweitzer added.
The air strike just 22 kilometers from the Syrian capital certainly sent shockwaves through the Syrian defense establishment which could not prevent Israeli warplanes from entering its sovereign territory with impunity. It also faced repletion in the world media about the sorry state of its obsolete army which was no match for the Israel Defense Forces.
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