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Israel drops anti-Hizbollah leaflets over Beirut

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 November 2005, 04:07 CST

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli planes dropped thousands of leaflets over Beirut on Wednesday, warning Lebanese that Hizbollah wanted to destroy Lebanon, two days after fierce clashes between Israeli forces and the guerrilla group.

"Who lies to you? Who sends your sons into battle unprepared?" read the leaflets, written in Arabic. "Who strives to return to destruction and ruin?

"Hizbollah is causing enormous harm to Lebanon," said the leaflets, which were signed "The State of Israel."

Witnesses said the jets dropped the leaflets over Beirut and several towns in south Lebanon in the early hours of Wednesday.

Israel has previously used this tactic after past clashes with Hizbollah, but it was the first time in many years the leaflets had been dropped so close to the center of the Lebanese capital.

Reda Nemeh, a 41-year-old security guard who saw the leaflets on his way to work in downtown Beirut, slammed them as an Israeli attempt to terrorize Lebanese citizens.

"They (the Israelis) want to sow strife among Lebanese and terrorize them," he said. "This should make us protect the resistance because what happened on Monday in the south was something that made us all proud."

Lebanon has repeatedly complained about Israeli violations of its airspace, and the United Nations has also expressed concern at the incidents.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has blamed Hizbollah for triggering Monday's clashes, the most violent along the tense border since Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000.

Lebanese security sources said Hizbollah's raid on north Israel, in which four guerrillas were killed and 11 Israelis wounded, was a failed attempt to capture Israeli soldiers in a bid to exchange them with Arab prisoners.

Lebanon has yet to disarm Hizbollah as demanded by U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 in 2004, saying the matter will be solved through internal dialogue.

Hizbollah says it will not disarm even if Israel pulls out of the occupied Shebaa Farms, an area the United Nations deems Syrian unless Damascus and Beirut amend their border.

Syria, Lebanon and Hizbollah say the farms, on the foothills of the Golan Heights, are Lebanese.

Source: REUTERS

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