Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire

Arab League voices 'full solidarity' with Lebanon over ongoing escalation

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel - Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement exchanged fire along the Lebanese border after a week of rising tensions, sparking fears of an escalation and prompting concern from world powers.

Israel said it had responded with around 100 artillery shells Sunday after Hezbollah fired two or three anti-tank missiles at a battalion headquarters and military ambulance, hitting both.

Israeli officials refuted claims by the Hezbollah movement that it had killed and wounded those inside the Israeli military vehicle, saying there were no casualties.

"We are consulting about the next steps," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "I have ordered that we be prepared for any scenario."

The Arab League voiced on Sunday its concern over the ongoing military escalation, stressing "full solidarity" with Lebanon in confronting any aggressions.

"Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit is following up with concern the developments of fire exchange in the border areas between Lebanon and Israel," Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted an Arab League official as saying.

The official said on condition of anonymity that Aboul-Gheit reaffirmed the Cairo-based pan-Arab body's full solidarity with Lebanon "in confronting any assaults it is subjected to".

The United Nations called for restraint and France said it had made "multiple contacts" to avert an escalation.

The United States voiced concern over the "destabilizing role" of Iranian proxies in the region and said it "supports Israel's right to self-defense", a US State Department official said.

"Hezbollah should refrain from hostile actions which threaten Lebanon's security, stability and sovereignty," the official added.

Earlier, Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri contacted senior US and French officials to urge their countries and the international community to intervene.

Hours after the flare-up, Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said the "tactical event" near Avivim, an Israeli community near the Lebanese border, was most likely over but that the "strategic situation is still ongoing".

Israel had targeted the unit that fired the missiles, he said.

Hezbollah said its fighters had "destroyed a military vehicle on the road to the Avivim barracks, killing and wounding those inside".

Its Al-Manar TV said the group targeted a Wolf armored vehicle that can fit eight soldiers.

After the initial reports of fire from Lebanon, an Israeli military spokesman said Israelis living within four kilometers of the border should remain at home and prepare shelters.

Tensions have risen in the last week between Israel and its enemy Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite movement backed by Iran.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said on Saturday that the militant movement had decided to respond to an alleged Israeli drone attack on the group's Beirut stronghold.

Drone attack

The predawn Aug 25 attack involved two drones - one exploded and caused damage to a Hezbollah-run media center and another crashed without detonating due to technical failure.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the incident, which came after it had launched strikes in neighboring Syria to prevent what it said was an impending Iranian drone attack on the Jewish state.

Hezbollah says two of its members were killed in that strike.

Major-General Stefano Del Col, the head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said the "serious incident" violated the UN resolution ending the 2006 conflict.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was "seriously concerned", according to a spokesman, and called "for maximum restraint".

Sunday's escalation comes amid rising tensions pitting Iran against the US and its allies over a series of incidents involving shipping in sensitive Gulf waters.

Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, on Sunday urged Bahraini citizens to leave Lebanon immediately.

The United Arab Emirate's minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted that "our hearts are with Lebanon and the Lebanese".

"The decision to make war, peace or stability should be the decision of the state," he tweeted, taking a jab at Hezbollah.

The flare-up also comes ahead of Israel's Sept 17 elections.

Netanyahu is seen as wanting to avoid a major conflict before the vote but he warned that the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "knows very well that the state of Israel knows how to defend itself well, and to repay its enemies".

Agencies