A mass demonstration and funeral was held Friday afternoon in southern Beirut for three Hizbullah terrorists killed in a Monday attempt to infiltrate Israel and kidnap IDF soldiers. Israel returned their bodies to Lebanon on Friday morning in a bid to defuse tensions following fierce border clashes this week. But Hizbullah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said his group will continue trying to kidnap Israeli soldiers.Chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," more than 10,000 Hizbullah supporters attended the ceremony in the Lebanese capital, after the bodies were brought from the Naqura/Rosh Hanikra Border Crossing between Israel and Lebanon. The massive protest demonstrated the considerable influence of Hizbullah, which is under international pressure to disarm, in Lebanese-Israeli affairs. The Israeli army said in a statement that the three bodies were returned to Lebanon "following the Lebanese government's urgent request to do so."
Four terrorists were killed and 11 Israeli soldiers were wounded in Monday's fighting on the south Lebanon border, the worst in several years. Israeli warplanes and artillery bombarded Hizbullah positions, and the terrorists fired missiles at Israeli military outposts. Three terrorists were killed by an IDF sharpshooter crossing into Israel, while a fourth was wounded and retrieved by his comrades, but died on the Lebanese side.
In Hizbullah's southern Beirut stronghold, the Shiite Muslim militant group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, warned that his terrorists will keep trying to capture Israeli soldiers. "It is our natural right to capture Israeli soldiers. Indeed it is our duty to do that," he said. "It is something we might do one day."
| That's actually true: when you're at war, you have the right to try and capture soldiers from the other side. Of course, they have the right to stop you. Nasrallah will therefore send his minions to do the dirty work and have their lives ended by alert IDF soldiers. |
Hizbullah denies initiating the attacks, but it is thought it may have been trying both to capture Israeli soldiers for a future exchange of prisoners and to take the international pressure off Syria, which is at the center of a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri.
The UN Security Council accused Hizbullah of starting this week's attacks, but Lebanon's government backed the terrorists despite the international pressure. Reacting to the UN Security Council statement, Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Lebanon's repeated complaints about Israeli violations "were not met with the necessary decisiveness" by the international community.