The Threat of a Second Israeli Front with Lebanon Still Alive; Peres Threatens To Resign over Security Fence

23/06/2002| IslamWeb

HEADLIGHTS: Rockets Fragments Destroy House||Fence Will Do a Lot of Political Damage, Peres||Sharon Would Accept Proposals to Ammend Fence Plan Until End of June|| STORY: A house in a northern Israeli border town was damaged Sunday by Hizbollah anti-aircraft fire aimed at an Israeli aircraft, Israeli media reports said. (Read photo caption)

According to the sources, a home in Kfar Yuval was hit by shell fragments after the shooting at a plane that was flying over Galilee.

No other damage or casualties were reported.

Hizbollah fighters in south Lebanon Tuesday fired anti-aircraft rockets across the border into Israel where shrapnel set off a fire in a northern town.

According to Israeli military sources, the blaze consumed mostly shrubs inside the town and there were no immediate reports of injuries or other damage.

In a statement issued in Beirut, Hizbollah said it had fired on Israeli warplanes flying over Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Tuesday afternoon.

Israeli planes have routinely violated Lebanese airspace since Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000, drawing anti-aircraft fire from Hizbollah and the Lebanese army and condemnation from the United Nations.

The firing has raised concerns about a new front opening between Israel and its Arab neighbor as a 20-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation rages.

Hizbollah fighters' attacks helped end Israel's 22-year military occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000.

PERES THREATEN TO RESIGN OVER SECURITY FENCE

In another development, Israeli foreign Minister Shimon Peres issued a veiled threat today to resign from the cabinet, apparently in protest against plans to include parts of the West Bank inside a security barricade being constructed to prevent Palestinian Resistance infiltrations.

A map shown ministers outlining the placing of the fence "looks like we're cutting up the West Bank. This will do a lot of political damage," Peres said, according to Israel Radio.

"I'm not ready to be part of a government that approves such a map," he added.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he didn't intend to let any ministers go, including Peres, media reports said.

Sharon gave the ministers through the end of the month to propose changes in the fence plan.

PHOTO CAPTION

Lebanon's Hizbollah Resistance leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah speaks during an International parliamentarians conference held in Beirut, June 18, 2002. Nasrallah said on Tuesday that the Palestinian Resistance bombing in Jerusalem, which killed 19 people on Tuesday, was proof that a security fence along Israel's porous West Bank frontier would fail to stop attacks. REUTERS/ Mohamed Azakir (L); Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres displays a certificate of Doctor Honoris Causa awarded to him by Sofia University Om June 18, 2002. (R) Peres spoke about the need to make compromises a few hours after a Palestinian Resistance bomber blew up a Jerusalem city bus, killing himself and at least 17 passengers. REUTERS/Dimitar Dilkoff