Hizbollah says it will reply to Israeli violations

Hizbollah warned today that the guerrilla group would pay back any Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty.

Hizbollah warned today that the guerrilla group would pay back any Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty.

The Islamic resistance is determined to reply to all Israeli land, sea or space violations regardless of pressures or political changes, Nabil Kaouk, a senior Hizbollah official, told a rally in south Lebanon.

Hizbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, is commonly known in Lebanon as the Islamic resistance.

The Muslim Shi'ite group, which is still fighting Israeli troops in the disputed Shebaa Farms, was the main force behind the Jewish state ending its 22-year long occupation of south Lebanon in May last year.

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Last week, Hizbollah guerrillas fired at Israeli warplanes which entered south Lebanon airspace on two consecutive days.

Hizbollah has said several times in the last few months that it fired at Israeli planes, which have regularly swooped over Lebanese cities since the withdrawal, breaking the sound barrier and staging mock raids.

Later today, army commander General Michel Sleiman visited troops in south Lebanon and renewed the country's commitment to the return of the Shebaa Farms, a strip of land adjoining Lebanon to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

All forms of Israeli threats will not force us to abandon our right to return our occupied land and to defend our country, the official National News Agencyquoted Mr Sleiman as telling the troops in the south.

After Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon, the government dispatched hundreds of troops and security personnel to patrol the area but resisted international calls to deploy the army.

Lebanon says army deployment would be tantamount to guaranteeing Israeli security while the two countries are officially still at a state of war.

The United Nations and Israel say the Shebaa Farms, occupied by Israel in 1967, is Syrian land. Lebanon and Syria say it is Lebanese.

Since the withdrawal, Hizbollah has launched several attacks on Israeli troops in the disputed area prompting immediate Israeli retaliation on troops of Lebanon's main power broker, Syria.