Hizbollah says has duty to abduct Israeli troops
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group said on Friday it had a duty to try to capture Israeli soldiers and swap them for Arab prisoners in Israel, hours after the Jewish state returned the remains of three fighters.
"Our experience with the Israelis shows that if you want to regain detainees or prisoners ... you have to capture Israeli soldiers," Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a rally in Beirut to mark the handover of the bodies.
"It is not a shame, a crime or a terrorist act. It is our right and our duty which one day we might fulfil," he told thousands of supporters chanting "death to Israel".
Three coffins wrapped in Hizbollah's yellow-and-green flags were then brought into the hall where Nasrallah was speaking. Israel had returned the remains earlier in the day through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A brass band played Lebanese and Hizbollah anthems as guerrillas saluted the dead fighters.
Thousands of people, including families of the men and top Hizbollah officials, watched the procession as the coffins were showered with rice and flowers -- a sign of celebration.
The bodies were earlier handed over from the Israeli side at the frontier town of Naquora in south Lebanon.
Four fighters died during a Hizbollah raid on Monday which Lebanese security sources said aimed, but failed, to seize Israeli soldiers who could be traded for Arabs jailed in Israel.
CONFIDENCE BUILDING
One of the dead was retrieved by the Lebanese but the rest remained on the Israeli side of Ghajar, a divided border town.
"The bodies were returned as a confidence-building gesture to create calm along the Israel-Lebanon border," an Israeli military source said.
Israel has warned its citizens to be more vigilant while travelling abroad, especially in Arab countries, citing concerns Islamic militant groups were planning to kidnap Israelis overseas.
"There is a threat of kidnapping of Israelis abroad," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said on Friday. "There is a concern that Hizbollah is upgrading its efforts."
In 2004 Hizbollah and Israel exchanged an Israeli businessman and the remains of three Israeli soldiers for more than 400 Arab prisoners. It was the last in a long list of prisoner exchanges between Israel and Palestinian and Lebanese groups in the past three decades.
The Israeli army said it handed over the bodies following a request by the Lebanese government.
Eleven Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clashes, the fiercest since the Jewish state withdrew forces from southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation. Israel retaliated for the Hizbollah raid with shelling and air strikes.
Tensions ratcheted up further on Wednesday when an Israeli civilian paraglider pilot was blown across the border by strong winds. The pro-Syrian Hizbollah and Israeli troops exchanged fire as he dashed back to safety. There were no casualties.
Nasrallah criticised the U.N. Security Council, which blamed Hizbollah for Monday's violence, for failing to condemn what he said were continued Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
He also said Hizbollah was not weakened by the April withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. "They should know that we are not weakened and we will not be weakened."
"Our experience with the Israelis shows that if you want to regain detainees or prisoners ... you have to capture Israeli soldiers," Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told a rally in Beirut to mark the handover of the bodies.
"It is not a shame, a crime or a terrorist act. It is our right and our duty which one day we might fulfil," he told thousands of supporters chanting "death to Israel".
Three coffins wrapped in Hizbollah's yellow-and-green flags were then brought into the hall where Nasrallah was speaking. Israel had returned the remains earlier in the day through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
A brass band played Lebanese and Hizbollah anthems as guerrillas saluted the dead fighters.
Thousands of people, including families of the men and top Hizbollah officials, watched the procession as the coffins were showered with rice and flowers -- a sign of celebration.
The bodies were earlier handed over from the Israeli side at the frontier town of Naquora in south Lebanon.
Four fighters died during a Hizbollah raid on Monday which Lebanese security sources said aimed, but failed, to seize Israeli soldiers who could be traded for Arabs jailed in Israel.
CONFIDENCE BUILDING
One of the dead was retrieved by the Lebanese but the rest remained on the Israeli side of Ghajar, a divided border town.
"The bodies were returned as a confidence-building gesture to create calm along the Israel-Lebanon border," an Israeli military source said.
Israel has warned its citizens to be more vigilant while travelling abroad, especially in Arab countries, citing concerns Islamic militant groups were planning to kidnap Israelis overseas.
"There is a threat of kidnapping of Israelis abroad," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said on Friday. "There is a concern that Hizbollah is upgrading its efforts."
In 2004 Hizbollah and Israel exchanged an Israeli businessman and the remains of three Israeli soldiers for more than 400 Arab prisoners. It was the last in a long list of prisoner exchanges between Israel and Palestinian and Lebanese groups in the past three decades.
The Israeli army said it handed over the bodies following a request by the Lebanese government.
Eleven Israeli soldiers were wounded in the clashes, the fiercest since the Jewish state withdrew forces from southern Lebanon in 2000 after a 22-year occupation. Israel retaliated for the Hizbollah raid with shelling and air strikes.
Tensions ratcheted up further on Wednesday when an Israeli civilian paraglider pilot was blown across the border by strong winds. The pro-Syrian Hizbollah and Israeli troops exchanged fire as he dashed back to safety. There were no casualties.
Nasrallah criticised the U.N. Security Council, which blamed Hizbollah for Monday's violence, for failing to condemn what he said were continued Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
He also said Hizbollah was not weakened by the April withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. "They should know that we are not weakened and we will not be weakened."
posted by Marko at 11/25/2005 04:14:00 PM
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