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Israel imposes blockades on Lebanon

Atul Aneja

Hizbullah fires rockets into Israeli towns; Tel Aviv threatens to open a third front in the conflict

— PHOTO: AP

CROSS-BORDER RAIDS: Smoke rises from an Israeli air raid that targeted a bridge, in the Zahrani region, in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

DUBAI: Israeli fighter jets on Thursday bombed Beirut international airport as part of an effort to impose an air and naval blockade on Lebanon.

The bombing damaged all the three runways of the airport. The terminal building, however, was not affected. It was the first time since its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that Israel has targeted the Beirut airport.

Israeli warplanes also hit the Al Manar television station run by Hizbullah — a prominent Lebanese militant group. This attack, however, did not hamper broadcast.

Simultaneously, Israeli warships entered Lebanese territorial waters in a bid to isolate the country's main ports. At least 35 civilians were killed in the Israeli military action.

Soldiers captured

The strikes by Israel began after Hizbullah captured two of its soldiers on Wednesday in a daring cross-border raid. Eight Israeli soldiers were also killed, including the crew of a tank, which was destroyed by a landmine.

The Israeli military is currently engaged in fighting on two fronts. It has positioned forces inside Gaza after Palestinian militants captured one of its soldiers, Gilad Shalit on June 25. Israeli planes overnight bombarded the Foreign Ministry building in Gaza, without causing any casualties.

By enforcing the blockade on Lebanon, Israel apparently wants to deny Hizbullah access to external supplies. However, The Daily Star, a prominent English daily published from Beirut, predicted that that the citizens of Lebanon would now become victims of Israel's "signature strategy: collective punishment." Unfazed by the Israeli response, Hizbullah fired Katyusha rockets at the Israeli border towns of Nahariya and Safed. The barrage killed two Israeli women and left 29 wounded. The Hizbullah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said at a press conference on Wednesday that recourse to military action to free its two soldiers would not help Israel. Instead, he proposed swapping three Israeli soldiers, including the one captured by Palestinian militants on June 25, with Arab prisoners lodged in Israeli jails.

Later on Thursday, Hizbullah warned Israel that its guerrillas would bombard Haifa, its third largest city, if Beirut or its southern suburb came under attack. Israel's army chief, Dan Halutz, had earlier threatened to strike offices and residences of Hizbullah officials that are concentrated in southern Beirut.

Syria and Iran have backed Hizbullah's actions. Syrian Vice-President Farouk al-Sharaa said the new crisis was the result of Israel's occupation of Arab land. The visiting head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who was accompanying Mr. Al Shaara, justified the "resistance", citing the imprisonment of "tens of thousands of Palestinians, including women and children" by Israel. Threatening to open a "third front", the Israeli Defence Ministry said during a briefing on Thursday that it would target the Beirut-Damascus road — a move that could draw Syria into the spiral of growing regional tensions.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli Cabinet had deliberated on ways to restore "deterrence" following the Hizbullah raid. Israeli media reported that for the moment, a full-scale land invasion of Lebanon is not on the cards. However, Israeli forces could breach the border in order to create a buffer zone, in case the Katyusha rocket attacks persisted. Apart from enforcing the blockade, Israeli planes were likely to target Lebanese infrastructure, especially its power transmission grid.

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