Israel, Hezbollah Both Lay Claim to Victory

A Hezbollah spokesman proclaimed victory Thursday in a deadly round of clashes in southern Lebanon, arguing that attacks that killed six Israeli soldiers in two weeks have proved that Israel can no longer stand up to the Shiite Muslim guerrillas.

But a still-angry Israel drew a different conclusion from the engagements. The government said that it has in effect changed the rules of its war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and that from now on it reserves the right to strike nonmilitary targets across Lebanon when an Israeli soldier is killed.

“We had grown accustomed to a situation in which the army is allowed only to respond to Katyushas [rockets] against civilians,” Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Thursday. Referring to the main power broker in Lebanon, he added, “We reject this pattern where we supposedly hold peace talks while our soldiers are being killed--with Syrian permission.”

Although Israel shelled suspected guerrilla targets beyond the 9-mile-deep strip of land it occupies in southern Lebanon--wounding at least two Hezbollah fighters--and Hezbollah staged at least one fresh attack, fears of a wider war clearly eased Thursday.

Tensions relaxed after it became apparent that Hezbollah wasn’t planning to fire Katyushas into northern Israel, as the Israelis had feared. In the northern settlement of Kiryat Shemona, the Israeli army sounded an all-clear alert and Israelis emerged from bomb shelters.

For its part, Israel avoided mounting any more attacks on civilian infrastructure sites, such as the bombing of three key electric plants earlier in the week that limited power supplies to a few hours a day for Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced Thursday that a five-nation monitoring group, established under a 1996 agreement that came after a previous Israeli campaign, will convene today to try to defuse the crisis in southern Lebanon. Such a meeting had been sought by Lebanon.

At the busy Hezbollah Information Office in south Beirut, the mood was buoyant among Hezbollah activists, who asserted that Israel had sustained bitter blows both militarily and politically.

“We have proved on the battlefield that Israeli forces are not capable of facing the resistance,” said Hussein Haj Hassan, a member of parliament and a spokesman for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which has lost 11 fighters in the conflict this year. “This is a glorious victory.”

The attacks on Israeli soldiers and their allies in the South Lebanon Army had provoked confusion and a “deep frustration inside Israel and inside the Israeli army itself,” Hassan added.

He said that the guerrillas would have been justified to retaliate for this week’s Israeli bombings of civilian sites by mounting rocket attacks on civilians in northern Israel but that the movement had decided to bide its time.

Although Hassan said that the decision to exercise restraint was made solely by Hezbollah, the consensus among diplomats and political observers here was that Syria must have ordered the guerrillas not to carry out such a provocative attack.

Several analysts also saw the containment of the Lebanese conflict as boding well for a possible early resumption of stalled peace talks between Israel and Syria, because it demonstrated that both sides are still very interested in a deal.

Michael Young, a Lebanese political commentator, said it is in the interests of Israel and Syria to come to a peace agreement, one that would permit an orderly, negotiated Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in the coming months rather than a simple retreat. He said he doubts that the recent fighting will prove to be an obstacle in the long run.

He noted that a “very far-reaching document” concerning a draft peace accord between Syria and Israel has already been prepared by the U.S., which he said shows that “both sides are willing to negotiate the details.”

The new rules of engagement announced unilaterally by Israel mark a significant break with the April 1996 understanding, which was brokered by the United States and France. Under its terms, Israel and Hezbollah have been obliged to not launch attacks from civilian areas and to not be the first to target civilian areas.

Israel said its new rules in effect formalize its response of the last week, when Israeli warplanes bombed the power plants deep inside Lebanon as reprisal for Israel’s military casualties.

Senior Israeli officials said Thursday that Hezbollah had been violating the April 1996 understanding with increasing frequency--by opening fire from inside Lebanese villages--and that had forced Israel to change its response. Hezbollah denies using villages as shields for attacks.

At a briefing for reporters in Tel Aviv, Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz tried to counter reports of growing demoralization within the army about its presence in southern Lebanon. The new fighting fed the clamor among many Israelis--including, in an extraordinary display, soldiers who spoke out on state radio--to get out of Lebanon, the sooner the better.

Retired Brig. Gen. Amal Asaad, formerly a commander of the Israeli unit that fought in Lebanon, on Thursday added his voice to the demands.

“I say, let us leave now,” Asaad told Israeli radio. “Even with the Israeli army at its best, we are big, clumsy and visible. The Hezbollah is a small guerrilla outfit, operating on its own turf, enjoying the support of the civilian population. . . . They are the winners of this round. Israel is in truth helpless in south Lebanon.”

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Cairo Bureau Chief Daniszewski reported from Beirut and Wilkinson from Jerusalem.