Fears mount over all-out Israel-Hezbollah war
January 29, 2015
A Spanish UN peacekeeper was also killed as Israel and Hezbollah exchanged artillery fire on Wednesday near the village of Ghajar on the Israeli-controlled side of the Golan Heights.
According to Roman Oyarzun Marchesi, the Spanish ambassador to the United Nations (UN), the Spanish blue-helmet was killed by fire which "came from the Israeli side."
Seven other soldiers were wounded after the Hezbollah-fired missiles hit an Israeli military convoy. The attack, carried out by a group called the "righteous martyrs of Quneitra," was an apparent retaliation for a deadly airstrike in Syria earlier this month.
Israel responded forcefully to the Hezbollah strikes, launching air and ground assaults.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Israel's UN Ambassador Ron Prosor wrote that Israel "will exercise its right to self-defense and take all necessary measures to protect its population."
Growing tensions
Following Wednesday's artillery fire, the UN Security Council called an emergency meeting in New York to discuss ways to defuse tensions between the two sides.
Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said Wednesday's attack was the "most severe" Israel had faced since 2006, when it fought a month-long war with Hezbollah. More than 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, most of whom were soldiers.
A UN statement said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had called for "maximum calm and restraint," urging all sides to "act responsibly to prevent any escalation in an already tense regional environment."
Tensions have been building in the area recently, especially after an Israeli air strike on the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general almost two weeks ago.
ksb/gsw (AFP, Reuters, dpa)