TENSION has reached such heights in south Lebanon that on Saturday two young men installing a water tank at a house in the village of Yattar were killed by Israeli gunners scanning the area with field glasses for possible "terrorist" activity.
The Lebanese Shia Hizbullah ("Party of God") responded by lobbing two salvos of Katushya rockets, the first this year, into northern Israel, sending settlers scurrying into their bomb shelters. Although it retaliated by further shelling, Israel stated that the Yattar incident had been a mistake" and called for restraint.
Hizbullah has apparently changed tactics since the first of, the year, resulting in more effective operations. Last year the movement launched 600 operations, killing 22 Israelis, while this year it has carried out 100 killing six and wounding 25. Hizbullah shifted from fielding small, opportunistic raiding parties, to sending into the occupation zone compact groups of well trained killers on well planned missions.
The suicide bomber also marked a military departure for Hizbullah, which formerly employed the roadside charge as its main weapon. The movement's secretary general, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said the March 20th "martyr" had many comrades... who would like to follow him on the path" pioneered by suicide bombers from the Palestinian Hamas movement who have killed 58 Israelis in recent attacks.
Hizbullah's adoption of the Hamas tactic was enthusiastically received by one Lebanese who called the suicide bombers "our atomic bombs for blowing up a peace process which has brought us neither peace nor the return of our territory."
Since a Hizbullah suicide bomber killed an Israel officer on March 20th, Israel has been expected to launch a major strike whenever the "Party of God" carried out another attack against the Israeli army in its southern occupation zone. Deprived of retaliation - by wet weather and US pressure - Israel, the Lebanese believe, is biding its time until it has a pretext. Syria has, so far, denied Israel this pretext by restraining Hizbullah.
Saturday's killing of the two men was regarded by Hizbullah as a violation of an "arrangement" reached in 1993. Under this, Hizbullah would confine its resistance activities to attacks on troops of the Israeli army and its surrogate "South Lebanon Army", and Israel would hit only Hizbullah bases and military formations.
Last week Mr Nasrallah accused Israel of violating the "arrangement" by bombing Lebanese civilians.
. Seven Israeli soldiers died in the crash of an Israeli army helicopter in the Judean desert yesterday, officials said. The air force chief, Gen Herzl Bodinger said the helicopter was taking part in a training exercise when it crashed moments after taking off. Weather conditions were good and the cause of the accident was not immediately clear.
