Israel and Hezbollah Clash

In the fiercest such exchange in months, Israeli troops and guerrillas from the Lebanese group Hezbollah traded rocket and artillery fire early today on Israel’s northern border. At least one Israeli soldier was killed and eight were wounded, the army said.

The fighting was so intense that Israel for more than an hour was unable to evacuate its wounded by helicopter, a military spokesman said.

There was no immediate report of casualties on the Lebanese side.

Also early today, Israeli troops in the northern West Bank killed three Palestinian men, two of whom were described as Islamic Jihad fugitives.

The Lebanese border has been relatively calm since Israel withdrew from a buffer zone in southern Lebanon in May 2000, but tensions periodically flare.

In recent days, Israel said it had foiled a cross-border infiltration attempt, and Israeli warplanes bombed what authorities said were Hezbollah targets.

Lebanon has complained angrily about the bombardment and overflights by Israeli aircraft.

Border skirmishes between Israel and Lebanon always have the potential of widening into conflict with Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon and a chief patron of Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim militant group.

Israel has recently warned Syria about its harboring senior officials of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, whose top leaders in the Gaza Strip have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent months. Israel says it would not hesitate to strike at the group’s Damascus-based leadership under some circumstances.

The border fight broke out before dawn, when Hezbollah fighters fired shells and antitank missiles at Israeli outposts in an area known as Mt. Dov, the army said. Hezbollah has never accepted the drawing of the international border in the area.

The Israeli military said its artillery batteries responded with barrages aimed toward the southern Lebanese village of Shuba, which it said was the source of fire.

The Hezbollah-affiliated radio station Al Manar said the militant group opened fire only after Israeli soldiers crossed into Lebanese territory.

The differing accounts could not immediately be reconciled.

In the first of three overnight deaths in the West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man in the northern city of Nablus. The Israeli military said he was armed with a pistol.

Later, troops pushed into a refugee camp outside the West Bank town of Tulkarm, searching for members of Islamic Jihad suspected of preparing to carry out an attack against a nearby Jewish settlement.

Gunfire broke out after soldiers surrounded a house where the wanted men were holed up. Two of the fugitives were killed and a third was arrested, the army said.