Israeli jets buzz Lebanon after Hezbollah fire

Israeli soldiers deploy a heavy cannon along the eastern area of the Israeli-Lebanese border yesterday near the Israeli town of Metulla. A young Israeli was killed on Sunday after the Lebanese fundamentalist Hezbollah fired anti aircraft rounds into Shlomi at the western end of the border. Photo: AFP

Sonic booms from low-flying Israeli warplanes shook Beirut residents awake shortly after 1:00 am Monday (2200 GMT).

The flights followed a meeting Sharon held late Sunday with his military chiefs to discuss "a range of Israeli retaliatory options" in case of further Hezbollah attacks, security sources in Jerusalem said.

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Air strikes were among the options agreed upon, they said.

"Israel can not just do nothing in the face of these attacks, but we do not want a military escalation with Syria and Lebanon," an Israeli official said after the meeting, asking not to be named.

On Sunday Israeli warplanes carried out an air strike on south Lebanon after an Israeli was killed and five wounded in cross-border fire in what Israel said was the second border attack in three days by Hezbollah, fuelling fears in the Jewish state of the reopening of a northern front after a seven-month lull.

The Israeli military said the raid on a hill outside the village of Tayr Harfa destroyed the gun used by fighters of the radical Shiite Muslim militia to lob the deadly shells.

Local residents said a Hezbollah anti-aircraft post took a direct hit, but no information on casualties was available.

The Shiite group said it only fired anti-aircraft guns at Israeli warplanes overflying Lebanon, but Israel said Hezbollah had fired shells across the border in a deliberate attack.

Israeli public radio named the dead Israeli as 16-year-old Habib Dadon, while medical sources said one of the five wounded in the northwestern town of Shlomi was in serious condition.

Moreover Beirut asked the United Nations and the five permanent Security Council members Monday to stop Israel from carrying out threats of retaliatory air strikes against Lebanon, a foreign ministry official said.

The call came during separate meetings by Foreign Minister Jean Obeid with the heads of diplomatic missions of the permanent members as well as the representative of UN chief Kofi Annan.

Reuters adds: Israel threatened Syria on Monday after Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon fired anti-aircraft shells that killed an Israeli teen-ager on Israel's northern border, but said it hoped to defuse tension through diplomacy.

Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim said Israel held Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon, responsible for Hizbollah's actions.