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May 9, 2004
Border tense after Hizbullah kills soldier
By David Rudge
Relative quiet returned to the northern border after Hizbullah attacks on IDF targets in the Mount Dov region on Friday morning in which St.-Sgt. Denis Laminov was killed and six other soldiers were wounded — two of them seriously. Laminov, 21, of Bat Yam, is to be laid to rest at 2 p. m. Sunday at the military cemetery in Holon. The young soldier, a member of the Golani Brigade’s elite Egoz counterguerrilla reconnaissance unit, is survived by his parents and brother.
One of the seriously wounded soldiers is being treated in the intensive care unit of Safed’s Rebecca Sieff Hospital, where his condition on Saturday was reported to be serious but stable. The other soldier who was badly hurt was transferred to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital on Friday. Dr. Zvi Ben-Ishai, deputy director of Rambam, said the condition of the soldier in the hospital’s intensive care unit had improved on Saturday.
"He has regained consciousness and is breathing on his own. He has also made signs of recognition to members of his family and staff," said Ben-Ishai. He said the four other wounded soldiers being treated in Rambam, to where they were also evacuated by helicopter, were suffering from relatively light limb injuries mainly caused by shrapnel.
A dog from the IDF’s canine unit, specially trained to locate explosives, that was with the soldiers at the time, was critically injured and died of its wounds on Saturday. The ceramic flak jackets all the soldiers were wearing apparently helped minimize the number of fatalities and serious casualties.
The Hizbullah attack occurred around 4:30 a. m. on Friday and followed other incidents over the two preceding days that raised the level of tension along Israel’s border with Lebanon.
It also raised questions about Israel’s response to such incidents, especially in light of Hizbullah’s deepening involvement among Palestinian terrorist organizations and its reported rapprochement with Hamas and agreement on mutual assistance.
On Wednesday, Hizbullah gunners fired anti-aircraft shells over Western Galilee communities in what the organization said was retaliation for violations of Lebanese airspace by IAF warplanes on the same day.
There were no casualties as a result of the Hizbullah firing, but IAF warplanes later struck at suspected Hizbullah positions in south Lebanon, in what was seen as a clear message that Israel would not tolerate shelling over northern communities.
The following day, in the early hours of the morning, troops thwarted an apparent infiltration attempt near the Gladiola outpost in the Mount Dov region when soldiers fired at a group of men apparently wearing flak jackets and carrying military equipment.
The suspected infiltrators fled the scene, leaving behind whatever they had been carrying. This gave rise to the suspicion that their actions might have been part of an attempt to attack the outpost or plant explosive devices below the ramparts of the fortified outpost.
In the early hours of Friday, members of the Egoz unit deployed along the northern border, together with the explosives-detecting dog and its handlers from the canine unit, were assigned the task of investigating the incident from the previous morning and what the suspected infiltrators had left in their wake.
It was while the troops were still in the field, as part of their mission, that Hizbullah gunners opened accurate fire with mortars and anti-tank missiles at the soldiers and at the Gladiola outpost and two nearby positions, Dahlia and Hadass.
The IDF Spokesman said the soldiers were hit as a result of this bombardment, although OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Benny Ganz, in a briefing with reporters in the North on Friday afternoon, did not rule out the possible use of explosive devices.
A statement issued by the Spokesman said that the troops located the equipment left behind by the suspected infiltrators, who were apparently members of Hizbullah, and that it included explosives.
The IDF responded with artillery fire at Hizbullah firing positions, combined with strikes by IAF warplanes and helicopter gunships. Reports from Lebanon said a number of homes in Shaba and Shuba villages were damaged, although there were no reports of any casualties.
Hizbullah claimed that it had opened fire to repulse an attempt by troops of the "Zionist enemy" to infiltrate Lebanese territory, apparently a reference to the activities of the Egoz unit troops.
Military sources maintained that the soldiers were inside Israeli territory when they were hit, although the actual lines of the border in that area are somewhat blurred.
Nevertheless, the incident was reminiscent of the one along the border in Western Galilee in January this year when Hizbullah fired anti-tank missiles at an IDF armored bulldozer as it was engaged in removing a string of bombs that had been planted there two weeks previously by Hizbullah infiltrators.
A soldier was killed and another seriously wounded in that incident, in which Hizbullah also claimed that Israel had violated Lebanese territory. The similarities between the two incidents gave rise to speculation that the planting of bombs near the Gladiola outpost on Mount Dov may have been a lure to draw troops into an exposed position that would also give Hizbullah a "legitimate pretext" for attacking them on the grounds it was defending Lebanese territory.
The IDF Spokesman said Hizbullah is continuing its provocations and attempts to perpetrate terrorist attacks against Israeli targets along the northern border while also assisting and encouraging Palestinian groups to carry out attacks inside Israel.
Ganz said the actions of the soldiers had probably prevented an even more serious attack in the area by Hizbullah, which is taking advantage of the vacuum in south Lebanon as a result of the Lebanese government’s ongoing refusal to comply with its obligations under UN Security Council resolution 425.
He said that Hizbullah, under the auspices of Syria, the controlling power in Lebanon, and its patron, Iran, is also utilizing the situation to actively assist Palestinian groups in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, and encourage them to carry out attacks inside Israeli territory. "Hizbullah is trying to act against Israel because that is its reason for existence… whether it is in the northern region, concentrated in the Mount Dov area, or from Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip," said Ganz.
"Hizbullah understands the price of an escalation and tries to act in such a way that it does not drag Israel into a severe response, while Israel’s concern is to cease the terrorist activities."An escalation in the area would harm all the region, but especially those north of the border… it would not be very comfortable for Israel but for the other parties [Lebanon and Syria] it would be horrendous,"he said.
The IDF investigation into the Mount Dov incident is expected to concentrate on several issues, primarily the advisability of dispatching ground troops to investigate what the Hizbullah infiltrators had left in the field under the Gladiola outpost and if it had been a pre-planned ambush.
In Memoriam
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