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Israeli Jets Strike Airport in Beirut
By GREG MYRE and STEVEN ERLANGER
JERUSALEM, Thursday, July 13 — Israel struck targets in Beirut and south Lebanon today in retaliation for a cross-border assault by the guerilla group Hezbollah, prompting President Bush to express concern that the Israeli actions might “topple’’ the Lebanese government.
Hezbollah had surprised Israel with a bold daylight assault on Wednesday, leading Israel to respond by sending armored forces into southern Lebanon for the first time in six years.
Early on Thursday morning, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the runways at Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, shutting the airport and potentially stranding thousands of visitors at the peak of the tourism season. The Israeli military confirmed the strike, saying that the airport was a target because Hezbollah receives weapons shipments there. Israel also announced that its navy would blockade Lebanon’s ports to cut off such shipments.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Daniel Taub, said in a televised interview that actions against Lebanon would continue until its government meets “its responsibility’’ by ending the attacks by Hezbollah.
Israeli warplanes also struck numerous locations in southern Lebanon, adding to the death toll. Hezbollah in return fired several Katyusha rockets into northern Israel, injuring three people.
Israel, which is already waging a military operation in the Gaza Strip to free a soldier captured by Palestinian militants, said that two of its soldiers were captured and at least eight killed in the fighting with Hezbollah.
The toll was the highest for Israeli soldiers in several years. Combined with the deaths on Wednesday of at least 22 Palestinians, including many civilians, in fighting in Gaza, it was the deadliest day in the Arab-Israeli conflict since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last year. The violence continued into the early morning hours today, when an Israeli air strike heavily damaged the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza.
News services reported that Israeli planes dropped leaflets today over the southern suburbs of Beiruit, where Hezbollah is strong, warning residents to evacuate the area. Hezbollah said it would retaliate for any bombing there by firing rockets at the largest city in northern Israel, Haifa.
Even though Israel has overwhelming military superiority in both southern Lebanon and Gaza, the new fighting was a sign that the conflict has blown past the limits of local confrontation and become a regional crisis.
Speaking in Germany today at a news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Bush said that the United States was “working actively to help calm the situation.’’
Mr. Bush condemned Hezbollah and its capture of the Israeli soldiers, while calling on Israel to show restraint. He said he was worried about the effect on Lebanon’s government, which the United States has strongly supported since Syria was forced to end its occupation of the country last year.
“Our concern is that any activities by Israel to protect herself could weaken that government, could topple the government,’’ he said.
But Mr. Bush also said that “Syria needs to be held to account’’ for its support of Hezbollah and the militant wing of Hamas.
As with the Gaza conflict, Israel ruled out negotiations with the Lebanese captors of the Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he held the Lebanese government responsible for the assault by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group that participates in Lebanese politics but also continues to battle Israel.
“I want to make clear that the event this morning is not a terror act, but an act of a sovereign state that attacked Israel without reason,” Mr. Olmert said. “The government of Lebanon, of which Hezbollah is a part, is trying to shake the stability of the region.”
Israel is demanding that all three of its soldiers be returned, and that militants stop firing rockets at Israelis from Gaza in the south or Lebanon in the north. But both Hamas and Hezbollah are demanding the release of a large number of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners held by Israel in exchange.
“The prisoners will not be returned except through one way — indirect negotiations and a trade,” said the leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, speaking to reporters in Beirut on Wednesday.
He suggested the possibility of an overall deal. “The capture of the two soldiers could provide a solution to the Gaza crisis,” he said. The operation had been planned for months, he said, though he added, “The timing, no doubt, provides support for our brothers in Palestine.”
Hezbollah released a statement saying that the two soldiers had been transferred to “a safe place,” but did not give any other details.
Two years ago, Hezbollah managed to push Israel to free more than 400 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in exchange for an Israeli businessman held in Lebanon and for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers killed in a Hezbollah attack in 2000. Israel is currently holding close to 9,000 Palestinian prisoners; the number of Lebanese prisoners is believed to be much smaller.
The White House released a statement condemning the Hezbollah raid, calling it an “unprovoked act of terrorism” and holding Syria and Iran responsible because of their longstanding support for the group. The United Nations representative to southern Lebanon, Gier Pedersen, also criticized the Hezbollah raid, calling it “an act of very dangerous proportions.”
The fighting on the Lebanese border erupted around 9 a.m., when Hezbollah attacked several Israeli towns with rocket fire, wounding several civilians, the Israeli military said. But that attack was a diversion for the main operation, several miles to the east, where Hezbollah militants fired antitank missiles at two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence, the military said. Of the seven soldiers in the two jeeps, three were killed, two wounded and two abducted, the military said.
Israel then responded with artillery fire, airstrikes and a naval bombardment that focused on about 40 sites in southern Lebanon. Most were believed to be Hezbollah strongholds, but roads and bridges were also hit in an attempt to keep Hezbollah from moving the captured soldiers farther north, according to the military. At least 2 Lebanese civilians were killed and more than 10 wounded in southern Lebanon, Lebanese officials said.
Israel also sent ground forces into Lebanon, and a tank hit an explosive planted in the road, killing all four soldiers inside, the Israeli military said. Another soldier was killed while trying to rescue those in the tank.
The Israeli incursion was the first such operation in southern Lebanon since Israel pulled its troops back into Israel in 2000, ending two decades of occupation.
Political and military analysts in Egypt and Israel said the recent events seemed to stem from a growing relationship between Hamas and Hezbollah. While there is no direct evidence of coordinated attacks, several analysts said they believed that the two kidnappings were part of a plan reflecting a trend that began several years ago, with Hezbollah trying to teach Hamas its methods.
“What took place from Hezbollah today, in my opinion, is tied to their relationship with Hamas,’’ said Dr. Wahid Abdel Meguid, Deputy Director of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Egypt. “Hezbollah developed a strong relationship with Hamas. The most manifest form of this relationship is Hezbollah’s role in training the Hamas cadres.”
Hezbollah and Hamas are part of a complex four-way relationship with each other and Iran and Syria. Iran helped to create, finance and train Hezbollah. Hamas’s political leader, Khaled Meshal, lives and works in Damascus. The expectation among political and foreign affairs analysts is that Hamas and Hezbollah would never have taken such provocative actions without at least the tacit approval of their sponsors in Tehran or Damascus.
Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s prime minister, sought to distance the government from the Hezbollah raid after an emergency cabinet meeting. He noted that the Lebanese government was “not aware of and does not take responsibility for, nor endorses, what happened on the international border.”
Meanwhile, a strike by Israeli aircraft early today heavily damaged the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building in Gaza. There were reports of injuries, though it was unclear whether they included people inside the ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, or in nearby buildings.
Greg Myre reported from Jerusalem for this article, and Steven Erlanger from Gaza City. Hassan M. Fattah contributed reporting from Beirut, and Michael Slackman from Cairo.
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