Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 21 January 2004 — Israeli planes attacked Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon yesterday after an Israeli soldier was killed a day earlier, threatening escalation on a border that has been calm for nearly four years.

The military said Israeli warplanes hit two Hezbollah bases near the seacoast. There was no word on casualties from the airstrikes after sundown near the village of Zebqin and Wadi Sluqi, hills about 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the Israeli border, Lebanese security officials said.

In all, three air-to-surface missiles were fired in the two air raids, said the Lebanese officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The airstrikes followed a border incident Monday. Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli bulldozer clearing explosives, killing an Israeli soldier and seriously wounding another.

After first insisting that the bulldozer had not crossed the border, the Israeli Army commander in the area, Col. Yair Golan, told Israel Radio yesterday that part of the vehicle had crossed into Lebanon while digging up the explosives.

Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers flattened 30 houses and a mosque in the Rafah refugee camp yesterday, Palestinian officials said, accusing Israel of systematically razing homes to widen a military buffer zone.

The military said it only targeted buildings from which shots were fired overnight at Israeli forces, but did not know how many structures were demolished.

With the demolitions under way in the Rafah camp, frantic residents threw mattresses and blankets from second-floor windows as ceilings and walls come crashing down around them. One woman, standing just feet from a bulldozer, waved a white flag in a failed attempt to slow the demolition and buy time to salvage belongings. A crying girl helped her mother carry a mattress.

Army officials initially insisted the razed houses had been empty, but then said the claim was still being checked. The governor of Rafah, Majed Agha, said about 400 people were made homeless yesterday.

Also razed yesterday was a neighborhood mosque, Al Tawhid, which had been partially demolished Saturday, residents said. The mosque is about 70 meters from the Israeli metal barrier. “This is a crime against God’s law and human law as well,” said mosque preacher Ibrahim Abu Jazar.

In the West Bank, Israeli security forces trying to dismantle a synagogue in a West Bank settlement outpost wrestled with dozens of settler activists. However, troops left half a dozen trailer homes at West Tapuah outpost untouched.

It was the first attempt by the army to remove a structure from a populated outpost since June. Dror Etkes of Peace Now, an Israeli group that opposes the settlement movement, said the demolition was a meaningless display, noting that settlers simply rebuild such structures after soldiers leave.

— Additional input from agencies