Hizbullah gunners shelled Israeli positions on occupied Shebaa Farms on Tuesday afternoon. One Israeli officer was lightly wounded, media reports said.
Residents of the Kfar Shouba village on the Lebanon-Israel border said they had earlier heard Israeli gunfire. The Israeli army confirmed there had been an attack by Hizbullah and that troops had returned fire.
Lebanon complained Tuesday to the United Nations about Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian base just south of Beirut, the deepest such bombing raid in Lebanese territory since Israeli forces withdrew from the south in May 2000.
In its letter of complaint, the Lebanese government called the Monday night airstrike "a dangerous aggression" and said Lebanon reserved the right to request a Security Council meeting about it.
Israel said the raid was retaliation for a rocket attack on an Israeli naval boat earlier Monday.
The attack damaged the Palestinian base, but there were no casualties.
A top Israeli defense official said Israel's airstrike was a warning to the Lebanese government.
"This signal, which was sent... by the air force, was aimed at Lebanon," Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel Radio on Tuesday. "This is a signal to Lebanon, a sovereign country."
The Israeli military confirmed the target was a PFLP-GC base and said it stored weapons.
Officials at Beirut airport, near Naameh, said three planes were spotted on the airport's radar screens flying up and down the Lebanese coast before the strike.
A spokesman for the PFLP-GC said, according to The AP, the planes "attacked humanitarian positions and a clinic." The PFLP-GC spokesman said "so far there are no human losses, only material losses." (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
