Israeli forces, guerrillas clash on Lebanon border

LEBANON: Israeli jets attackedyrian-backed Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas in Lebanon hours after rockets fired deep into northern Israel wounded an Israeli soldier.

Gunbattles broke out between Israeli soldiers and Hizbollah guerrillas along the volatile Lebanese-Israeli border in what Israel said was its toughest attack since it ended a 22-year occupation of south Lebanon six years ago.

One Palestinian militant and a Hizbollah fighter were killed and two Lebanese civilians and another Israeli soldier were wounded in the fighting.

The Israeli army ordered residents living in northern areas to go to bomb shelters after a clash between Hizbollah and Israeli soldiers near Kibbutz Menara landed mortar and rocket fire in northern Israel, Israeli security sources said.

Hizbollah guerrillas, backed by Syria and Iran, also attacked Israeli posts in the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, Lebanese witnesses said. U.N. peacekeepers later brokered a ceasefire that ended the hostilities and Israel called residents out of shelters.

"We are in contact with both sides. We brokered a ceasefire and we hope this agreement will take hold," Milos Strugar, senior adviser to the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, said.

The Palestinian group Islamic Jihad denied it claimed responsibility for the rocket attack into Israel although it had earlier vowed revenge for the killing of one of its officials and his brother in a car bombing in south Lebanon on Friday. Witnesses said Israeli aircraft and artillery pounded areas along different parts of the border.

The Israeli army said those attacks targeted suspected Hizbollah positions in southern Lebanon in response to "a large scale attack on Israeli communities and military bases in northern Israel". Israeli General Udi Adam, head of northern command for forces along Israel's northern border, told reporters that his forces attacked over 20 Hizbollah posts after an off-duty soldier was shot and wounded by sniper fire from Lebanon.

"Let there be no doubt that we will deal a very painful blow to whoever tries to disrupt life along our northern border," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Israeli television.

"I think those taking part in this fire have miscalculated. They will receive an unequivocal and very aggressive response without hesitation if they don't stop."

Hours earlier Israeli warplanes struck a military base just outside Beirut and another in the eastern Bekaa Valley, both run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), which is based in Damascus .

Luci,Monday, Reuters