JERUSALEM — The worst flare-up on Israel’s northern border in more than a year has prompted concerns about a major military confrontation.
For an Israeli public weary of the seemingly interminable embroilment in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah’s massive assault on northern Israel this week has also rekindled debate here over Israel’s role in Lebanon.
No one was killed Tuesday when Israel sustained its heaviest Hezbollah rocket attack since April 1996.
But with residents of northern Israel once again scrambling for bomb shelters, it was inevitable that the Israel Defense Force would respond to the Katyusha assault.
The response came a day later, when Israeli planes hit Hezbollah positions in the Bekaa Valley, a location near a Lebanese army position in southern Lebanon, and a high tension line near Sidon, cutting off power to the Lebanese port city.
The Israeli army said planes deliberately missed the Lebanese army position in order to avoid any casualties.
But the IDF added that while it did not consider the Lebanese army an enemy force, it wanted to send a signal that it would not act with restraint if Lebanese troops cooperated with Hezbollah.
Ironically, the tensions in the north came amid subtle indications of movement in the long-dormant Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations.
Rumors abounded this week about U.S. contacts between Israel and Syria that could enable Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to pursue the Israeli-Syrian track along with the negotiations with the Palestinians. She is expected to visit the region next month.
Albright, responding to a call from Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, called Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa early Tuesday to ask him to try and stop Hezbollah from firing at Israel.
Sharaa reportedly promised Albright that Syria would do its best to stop the violence from escalating.
Tuesday’s twin series of rocket assaults was the latest and most serious in a series of incidents in the past few weeks that have raised the temperature on Israel’s northern border.
Touring a damaged house in Kiryat Shmona, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Islamic fundamentalist Hezbollah to halt attacks on civilians.
“If there is quiet on the Israeli side of the border, there will be quiet on the Lebanese side. One can draw the appropriate conclusion,” Netanyahu said.
“We don’t seek an escalation, but equally, we can’t accept this as a way of life.”
Three people were lightly injured in the attack, including one woman who was treated for shock. Hezbollah said it fired the rockets to avenge Monday’s shelling of the Lebanese port city of Sidon by Israel’s ally, the South Lebanon Army. At least seven people were reported killed in that attack.
Israel condemned the SLA shelling, saying it was contrary to the understandings in a U.S.-brokered cease-fire established in April 1996 in an effort to protect civilians on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border.
In a rare public criticism of the SLA, Israeli officials said they couldn’t sanction “indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas.”
The five-nation committee formed to monitor the cease-fire understandings was scheduled to convene Wednesday to discuss complaints lodged by Israel and Lebanon over the recent violence.
The Israel Defense Force estimated that some 40 rockets landed inside Israel, most in open areas. A smaller number fell inside the security zone across the border.
The first of Tuesday’s two bombardments came shortly after 7 a.m. and the second hit about 90 minutes later, with rockets landing in the Upper and Western Galilee.
A number of buildings were damaged and a child’s room in one Kiryat Shmona apartment sustained a direct hit. The apartment’s occupants were not at home and no one was hurt.
“It was a miracle that we weren’t here, that’s the only way I can explain it,” said Yaron Kalita, who was in Tel Aviv with his wife and 18-month-old daughter.
“If we were here, we probably would have been dead or injured.”
The Israeli army allowed northern residents to leave shelters hours after Tuesday’s assault, and the prime minister convened senior ministers to discuss what steps to take.
Netanyahu called on the Syrian and Lebanese governments “to exercise control” over the Iranian-backed fundamentalist group.
But it appeared that Israel was intent on not allowing itself to be drawn into what began earlier this week as a firefight between factions in Lebanon — perhaps because Netanyahu has adopted a new and significantly flexible formula regarding Syria, according to Yediot Achronot.
The depth of Israeli withdrawal on the Golan Heights, he is said to have signaled, would correspond to the depth of security provisions on the ground.
That stance contrasts with the government’s long-standing opposition to any pullback on the Golan.