DATE=5/5/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ISRAEL / LEBANON (L)
NUMBER=2-262035
BYLINE=MEREDITH BUEL
DATELINE=JERUSALEM
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon have fired
rockets into northern Israel for the second day,
injuring at least one person. As VOA Correspondent
Meredith Buel reports from Jerusalem, the attacks
follow Israeli air strikes on civilian and guerrilla
targets throughout Lebanon.
TEXT: Katyusha rockets continued to rain on northern
Israel setting fires and forcing panicked residents
into bomb shelters. Plumes of smoke and the smell of
explosives hung over the area.
Many people piled belongings in their cars and fled
south, out of rocket range.
The rockets fell on the town of Shlomi, a border
community near Israel's Mediterranean coast, and on
Kiryat Shemona, the largest town on the border of
Israel and Lebanon. The barrage lasted for more than
an hour.
The attacks come a day after Hezbollah (Party of God)
guerrillas in southern Lebanon unleashed their
fiercest cross border rocket assault in nearly a year,
killing an Israeli soldier and wounding a number of
civilians.
Hezbollah guerrillas are claiming responsibility for
the rocket attacks, which they say are in retaliation
for artillery shelling that killed two Lebanese women.
The attacks prompted Israel to launch air strikes
throughout Lebanon. Israeli war planes bombed power
stations, plunging much of the country into darkness.
The planes also fired on a guerrilla stronghold and
the highway that links Beirut and Damascus. An
Israeli missile fell close to a building housing
Syrian intelligence forces.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak toured the areas
hardest hit by the Katyushas, and said Israel will do
whatever is necessary to protect its citizens.
/// Barak Act ///
No country on earth will be ready to accept
salvos of Katyushas into its civilian centers.
Israel will not allow it to happen.
/// End Act ///
Prime Minister Barak convened a meeting of his top
security officials to discuss the latest violence.
Government Minister Haim Ramon says Israel will launch
more air strikes if Hezbollah launches more rocket
attacks on civilians.
/// Ramon Act ///
We will retaliate against the Hezbollah and
against those that allow the Hezbollah to act
against Israeli civilians.
/// End Act ///
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas are fighting a
war of attrition against Israeli soldiers, and their
allied militia fighters in south Lebanon.
Israel maintains a self-styled security zone in
Lebanon in an effort to protect its northern residents
from guerrilla attacks.
The escalation in violence comes two months before
Israel says it will withdraw its soldiers from
southern Lebanon. (Signed)
NEB/MB/GE/KBK
05-May-2000 10:53 AM EDT (05-May-2000 1453 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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