June 28, 2000
The leader of the Hezbollah guerrillas said in remarks published Wednesday that a cease-fire is in effect in southern Lebanon - but that it will not last unless Israel stops violating the Lebanese border.
The remarks by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah were the first acknowledgment by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah that it would observe the undeclared truce prevailing on the Lebanese-Israeli frontier.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which spent years fighting Israel's occupation of a section of southern Lebanon, is now the de facto authority in the former occupied zone. Israeli troops pulled out of the region May 24, and the Lebanese army has not deployed in the border zone. Hezbollah guerrillas ''have been instructed not to fire on the border until further notice,'' Nasrallah said in an interview published by the newspaper As-Safir. However, Nasrallah warned that Hezbollah would not tolerate Israeli infringements of Lebanese territory.
The Beirut government has repeatedly accused Israel of failing to withdraw completely. On Monday night, the U.N. Security Council urged Israel to comply with a report by U.N. peacekeepers that said the Jewish state was violating the border in half a dozen places. ''We cannot keep silent for long while our territory is under occupation and the (Israeli) enemy is violating the sovereignty of our country and attacking our people,'' Nasrallah told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Salim Hoss on Wednesday. Israel has repeatedly warned that it will not tolerate any cross-border attacks from Lebanon.
Since the withdrawal, there have been frequent incidents along the border, with Lebanese demonstrators taunting Israeli soldiers and pelting them with stones. Several people have been wounded by Israeli gunfire. On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers fired in the air after a photographer for the Lebanese newspaper Al-Mustaqbal was seen taking pictures at the border gate at Kfar Shouba. Witnesses said the soldiers approached the gate and ordered the photographer to hand over his camera. He complied. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the incident.
