tagged w/ Hezbollah
-
A gun salute at Ehud Goldwasser's funeral
Israel is holding military funerals for two soldiers returned from Lebanon by the militant Hezbollah movement as part of a prisoner exchange.
The soldiers - Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser - are believed to have died when they were ambushed in 2006.
The incident sparked a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah.
In exchange for the return of their bodies, Israel has released five Lebanese prisoners and the remains of 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters.
Thousands of people have gathered for the funeral of Mr Goldwasser, held at the military cemetery in his hometown of Nahariya in northern Israel.
Mr Regev is to be buried later on Thursday in the military section of the cemetery in Haifa.
Fatal wounds
The Israeli military feels an obligation to bring all its soldiers home. But Wednesday's exchange has been controversial in Israel because it freed convicted murderer Samir Qantar.
Soldiers wearing purple berets carried Mr Goldwasser's coffin with the Israeli flag stretched across it.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak sat next to Mr Goldwasser's widow Karnit and then addressed the mourners, many of them soldiers.
If "the worst will happen to any of you," he said, Israel "will make every possible and legitimate effort... to bring you home".
Israeli officials said Mr Goldwasser died of a chest wound from a rocket-propelled grenade when the vehicle he and Mr Regev were in was ambushed, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported.
Mr Regev was also wounded by the grenade blast, before being shot in the head, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, the remains of the returned Lebanese and Palestinian fighters have been carried to Lebanon's capital Beirut in a triumphal cortege.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah personally welcomed home the five militants freed by Israel.
At a huge rally in Beirut, Sheikh Nasrallah said the "age of defeats" was over.
PRISONER EXCHANGE
From Hezbollah: Bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and remains of other Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon in 2006
From Israel: Five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Qantar, and remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters
The BBC's Crispin Thorold in Beirut says the exchange is being treated as a triumph by supporters and opponents of Hezbollah alike.
Qantar had been in jail since 1979 for a deadly guerrilla raid in which he killed a four-year-old girl, her father and a policeman.
The girl's two-year-old sister was accidentally smothered by her mother as they hid in their apartment's crawl space during the raid.
The agreement has caused controversy in Israel, with some government ministers opposed to exchanging live Hezbollah prisoners for dead bodies.
The swap was brought about by two years of delicate mediation by German negotiators.
Qantar's imprisonment was arguably a catalyst for the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, our correspondent says, as Lebanese militants captured the two Israeli soldiers to demand his release.
Until Wednesday there had been no confirmation of their deaths as Hezbollah remained silent on the issue. A gun salute at Ehud Goldwasser's funeral
Israel is holding military funerals... more
-
-
kushan
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
Samir Kuntar, the key militant released by Israel in Wednesday's prisoner swap, crossed into Lebanon to the cheers of his supporters and, according to Lebanese media, the widespread astonishment of the Lebanese.
Four Lebanese militants captured during the Hezbollah-Israel war two years ago also entered Lebanon after Israel released them.
Under the terms of the swap agreed to by Israel and Hezbollah, the release of Kuntar and the other four came after Israel identified two bodies it received from Hezbollah as those of two Israeli soldiers abducted in 2006, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Kuntar -- who had been detained before Hezbollah came into being -- was treated as a national hero and a political symbol by the Lebanese militant movement because he was the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel.
But he was widely reviled in Israel, where David Baker, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, called the celebrations being staged and planned in Lebanon for the "child murderer" Kuntar "reprehensible and simply atrocious."
A member of the Palestine Liberation Front, Kuntar led a group of four men who entered Israel from Lebanon by boat in 1979. They killed a police officer who came across them. Then they took a 28-year-old man and his 4-year-old daughter hostage.
Kuntar shot the father dead at close range in front of his daughter and tossed his body in the sea. He then smashed the girl's head, killing her, too. In addition, a 2-year-old girl suffocated as her mother tried to stop her from crying while they hid during the violence.
Kuntar was sentenced to 542 years in prison.Samir Kuntar, the key militant released by Israel in Wednesday's prisoner swap,... more
-
-
kushan
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
Israeli defense officials say forensics experts have positively identified the remains of two soldiers released by Hezbollah guerrillas.Israeli defense officials say forensics experts have positively identified the remains... more
-
-
Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas turned over to Israel two coffins believed to contain the bodies of Israeli soldiers, setting in motion a dramatic prisoner swap between the bitter enemies Wednesday.Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas turned over to Israel two coffins believed to... more
-
-
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah handed over what are believed to be the remains of two Israeli soldiers Wednesday -- the first step of a long-awaited prisoner swap between the two sides.
Hezbollah officials handed over two large black boxes to Red Cross officials who will carry them over the border to Israel.
If forensics expert determine that the remains are those of Sgt. First Class Ehud Goldwasser and Staff Sgt. Eldad Regev, Israel will turn over to Hezbollah five Lebanese prisoners -- including convicted murder Samir Kuntar, who many Israelis consider the embodiment of evil.
It will also return the remains of 199 Lebanese fighters who Israel says were killed in clashes over the years.
The forensic determination is expected to take several hours.
The transfer occurred shortly before 10 a.m. Israel time (3 a.m. ET) at the Rosh Hanikra crossing in western Galilee, which the army had declared a closed military zone a day earlier.
The swap caps a tireless campaign by the soldiers' families to bring them home. It also ends decades of resistance by the Israeli government, which wanted to use Kuntar as a bargaining chip to obtain information about a missing airman whose plane crashed in Lebanon in 1986.
The Shiite militia Hezbollah cast the swap as a victory for all Lebanese, with one official calling it "an official admission of defeat."The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah handed over what are believed to be the remains... more
-
-
kushan
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon ended weeks of wrangling on Friday and formed a unity government in which Hezbollah and its allies hold effective veto power, as agreed under a deal that ended a paralyzing political conflict in the country.
The decisive say granted to the former opposition led by Hezbollah, an ally of Damascus, shows that Syria has succeeded in wrenching back some political leverage in Lebanon, where it was the main power broker until its troops left in 2005.
The birth of the government, the first under newly elected President Michel Suleiman, should close a long political crisis that had threatened to plunge Lebanon into a new civil war.BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon ended weeks of wrangling on Friday and formed a unity... more
-
-
AFP reports:
"Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday."
"The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas."
-Well at least they have a better way to protect themselves. AFP reports:
"Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to... more
-
-
Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel are putting the final touches to an agreement to exchange prisoners, a Lebanese political source said on Wednesday.
The deal, mediated by a U.N.-appointed German negotiator, would see Hezbollah returning two Israeli soldiers captured in 2006 for four Lebanese prisoners and the bodies of about 10 Hezbollah fighters. It is not clear whether either of the Israelis is still alive.Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel are putting the final touches to an agreement to... more
-
-
JERUSALEM — Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff warned Thursday that the radical Islamic group Hezbollah "makes Al Qaeda look like a minor league team," and poses the greatest threat to national security.
"Someone described Hezbollah like the A-team of terrorists in terms of capabilities, in terms of range of weapons they have, in terms of internal discipline," Chertoff told FOX News. "To be honest, they make Al Qaeda look like a minor league team.
"They have been more disciplined, and they've been in some senses more restrained in the kinds of attacks they carry out ... in recent years, but that's not something we can take for granted," he warned.
Chertoff, speaking before the opening of a two-day terrorism forum in Jerusalem, also warned of the threat of a terrorist smuggling a bomb aboard a passenger airplane.
"I don't think we're really worried about hijacking because we've put a lot of measures in place like a locked cockpit door, flight deck officers who have weapons and the air marshals," Chertoff told FOX News. "So the next threat becomes the bomb. Something that either a person takes on board themselves or smuggles into the cargo."
"One way we've addressed smuggling a bomb is by reducing the size of liquids you can bring on board," Chertoff said. "That was a direct result of learning terrorists had developed a way to disguise liquid explosives.
"The second thing we're in the process of doing is intensifying the degree of screening we use for baggage that goes into the cargo. Whether it comes from the passenger or is shipped from company. All of this is raising the level of defense," he said.
Hezbollah, which represents most of the Shia in Lebanon and whose related factions hold a combined 37 seats in parliament -- more than a quarter of the legislative body -- is openly dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
In a 2000 interview with the Washington Post, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said, "I am against any reconciliation with Israel. I do not even recognize the presence of a state that is called 'Israel.'"
Military analysts estimate Hezbollah's armed strength to be about 1,000 full-time highly trained members, with as many as 10,000 volunteers who openly patrol the streets of Beirut and other Lebanese towns.
The group's primary weapons are believed to consist of an arsenal of Russian- and home-made rockets, as well as arms supplied through Iran, the group's political and spiritual ally.
In addition to Chertoff, the two-day security forum, hosted by Israeli Minister of Internal Security Avraham Dichter, includes representatives of Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Italy, the United Kingdon and the Palestinian Authority.
Part of the agenda will cover the psychology of bombers and a demonstration by Israeli security experts of how to foil an airplane hijacking.JERUSALEM — Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff warned Thursday that the... more
-
-
Lebanon on Tuesday banned motorbikes, political demonstrations as well as flag waving and provocative slogans from the Lebanese capital until further notice after clashes between rival factions last night.
"Motorbikes will be banned in Beirut effective at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on May 27, 2008, until further notice," an interior ministry statement said.
Demonstrations, the waving of party flags or provocative slogans were also banned in the city.
It is common practice in Beirut for supporters of various rival political parties to drive around the city waving party flags, blaring slogans on loudspeakers and shooting in the air.
Hezbollah and its ally Amal movement put out a statement on Tuesday calling on their supporters to put an end to these practices saying that they would "not provide political cover for them."
ast night's clashes came as Hezbollah supporters were celebrating a speech by their leader Hassan Nasrallah, who vowed his powerful group would not use its weapons to achieve political gains.
Rival supporters insulted the Hezbollah backers who reacted by firing off a stun grenade at the Sunni mosque of Abdel Nasser.
The Lebanese army cordoned off the area and restored order, said state-run Tele Liban, without giving details or reporting any casualties.
It was the first such incident since the army took control of west Beirut after Hezbollah pulled out its fighters who seized control in several days of mostly Shiite-Sunni clashes earlier this month that killed 65 people.
Lebanon on Tuesday banned motorbikes, political demonstrations as well as flag waving... more
-
-
Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday that they were engaged in negotiations for a comprehensive peace treaty through Turkish mediators, a sign that Israel is hoping to halt the growing influence of Iran, Syria’s most important ally, which sponsors the anti-Israel groups Hezbollah and Hamas.
Senior Israeli officials from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office and their Syrian counterparts were in Istanbul on Wednesday, where both groups had been staying separately, at undisclosed locations, since Monday. The mediators shuttled between the two. Syria and Israel have not negotiated this seriously in eight years.
Syria’s motives are clear: it wants to regain the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 war, and to re-establish a relationship with the United States, something it figures it can do through talks with Jerusalem.
The American government opposed Israeli-Syrian negotiations because they feared that such a negotiation would reward Syria at a time when the United States is seeking to isolate it for its backing of Hezbollah and its meddling in Lebanon, Bush administration and Israeli officials said. The United States yielded when it became clear that Israel was determined to go ahead, they said.
Israel and Syria announced on Wednesday that they were engaged in negotiations for a... more
-
-
Rival Lebanese leaders signed a deal on Wednesday to end 18 months of political conflict that had threatened to push the country to a new civil war.
The agreement, reached after six days of Arab-mediated talks, also paved the way for the election of a new president.
Parliament will convene on Sunday to elect army chief General Michel Suleiman as head of state, aides to Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Reuters in Qatar, where the feuding sides signed the accord.
The agreement between the U.S.-backed ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition resolved a dispute over a law for holding 2009 parliamentary elections and met the opposition's long-standing demand for veto power in cabinet.
It followed a Hezbollah military campaign this month against the ruling coalition which bolstered the opposition's political strength. Hezbollah, a group backed by Iran and Syria, routed its rivals in six days of conflict that killed 81 and prompted the Qatari-led mediation.
The fighting was Lebanon's worst civil conflict since the 1975-1990 war and exacerbated tensions between Shi'ites loyal to Hezbollah and Druze and Sunni supporters of the government.Rival Lebanese leaders signed a deal on Wednesday to end 18 months of political... more
-
-
Former Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Bandar bin Sultan asks Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert to move against Hezbollah.
Former Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Bandar bin Sultan asks Israeli prime minister... more
-
-
Clashes between supporters of the US-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition have shaken Lebanon. Six days of deadly sectarian bloodshed is the worst violence in the country since the end of the 15 year civil war in 1990. Real News Analyst Pepe Escobar examines what is happening in Lebanon.
Clashes between supporters of the US-backed government and the Hezbollah-led... more
-
-
" It's the only country in the Arab world with a functioning parliamentary system that is not dependent on and does not answer to the executive; that, however, is true only when Parliament actually functions, a feat it has not been able to accomplish in several months as a result of the inability of the 128 members of Parliament to come to an agreement regarding the election of the next president. "
Lebanon still without a President faced more violence in the past week, with Shiite Hezbollah forces launching offensives on south and west of the country attacking Sunni pro-government opposition. More than 60 people have been killed in the clashes since the violence broke out, however a set of deals appears to have been brockered for the west of the country after heavy fighting around a druze stronghold in the Chouf Mountains. The fighting was active for the last week involving heavy fire power, and on Sunday Walid Jumblatt handed the area over the the Lebanese Army. Beiruit seems to follow similar deal, and although Hezbollah crushed all opposition before pulling out, the army is said to take control on teusday 6am (3am GMT) and will restore order by force if neccessary.
Since sunday an uneasy truce has been called, althuogh there have been reports of shootings up to 24 hours after the " truce " across the country, but they are wide spread and rare. Although there are reports that Hezbollah collumns were acting up from east Bekaa on monday night.
A delegation from the Arab League has been sent including Secretary General, Amr Moussa, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jabr Al Thani, seeking to draw attention to the political instability in Lebanon and solve it." It's the only country in the Arab world with a functioning parliamentary... more
-
-
Fierce clashes broke out on Sunday in the mountains east of Beirut between supporters of the Western-backed government and followers of Hezbollah, the militant group backed by Iran.
The fighting, in the Shouf and Aley districts in the mountains overlooking the capital, Beirut, followed overnight clashes in the northern city of Tripoli that left at least two people dead and five wounded, according to security officials. Fierce clashes broke out on Sunday in the mountains east of Beirut between supporters... more
-
-
Control of several villages loyal to Lebanon's pro-government Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has been handed to the army after an attack by Hezbollah.
The group's fighters used heavy weapons and small arms to attack the mountain settlements south-east of Beirut.
A truce was called after the Druze capitulated to avoid bloodshed, a BBC correspondent reports.
It follows four days of fighting in which Hezbollah stormed west Beirut, raising fears of a return to civil war.
About 40 people have died in total in the clashes, which pitch the Syrian-backed Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah and its allies against the governing Western-backed Sunni, Christian and Druze alliance.
Beirut was quiet on Sunday, after control of areas seized by Hezbollah was handed to the Lebanese army, but clashes took place overnight in Lebanon's second city, Tripoli.
Credit: BBCControl of several villages loyal to Lebanon's pro-government Druze leader Walid... more
-
-
kushan
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
-
Lebanon's factional violence raged on in the mountains around Beirut on Sunday, as gunmen from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement battled Druze allies of a government which is supported by Washington.
The fighting in Aley, a town in the mountains overlooking the capital, and nearby villages killed at least eight people.
Hezbollah, which is also backed by Syria, and its allies have in recent days routed pro-government gunmen in Beirut in Lebanon's worst civil strife since the 1975-1990 civil war.
The campaign led by Hezbollah has increased pressure on the governing coalition, supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to accept the opposition's terms for ending 18 months of political conflict.Lebanon's factional violence raged on in the mountains around Beirut on Sunday,... more
-
-
kushan
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
-
"Fighting has been reported through the night in the Lebanese city of Tripoli between Hezbollah sympathisers and supporters of the government.
Machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades are being used and people have been fleeing their homes, correspondents say.
Three people died in the northern city on Saturday.
Meanwhile, an uneasy calm has descended on the capital, Beirut, scene of four days of bloody street battles.
More than 30 people died in those clashes between Hezbollah fighters and government supporters.
On Saturday, Hezbollah agreed to pull its fighters off the streets of the Muslim western part of the city after the army overturned government measures aimed at curbing the group".
BBC News"Fighting has been reported through the night in the Lebanese city of Tripoli... more
-
-
"Lebanon's opposition has begun withdrawing its fighters from the streets of Beirut, handing control to the army, after seizing much of the city in battles with government supporters. "The opposition welcomes the army's decision and will proceed with the withdrawal of all its armed elements so that control of the capital is handed over to the military", an opposition statement said. Thirty-seven people have been killed in the four days of fighting that erupted after the government said it would take action against Hezbollah's communications network and sacked the head of security at Beirut airport, who is close to the group".
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies"Lebanon's opposition has begun withdrawing its fighters from the streets of... more
-
