Israel Warns Syria following First Hezbollah Attack in 4 Months

On August 29, after a four-month lull in cross-border attacks, Hezbollah guerrillas launched an intense barrage of mortar shells and anti-tank rockets against two Israeli outposts in the Shebaa Farms area of the Golan Heights, wounding three Israeli soldiers. Shortly thereafter, Israeli Defense Minister issued a stern warning to Damascus. "It is very clear to us that nothing happens on our northern border without the knowledge and permission of the Syrians. We hold them responsible for every violation. We have warned them several times in the past . . . we will not ignore provocation."

On April 16, 2001, the Israeli air force demolished a Syrian radar station in Lebanon following a Hezbollah attack which killed an Israeli soldier. Two and a half months later, a second air strike against a Syrian radar station was launched after an Israeli soldier was wounded.

Ain al-Hilweh Violence Continues

Despite unprecedented levels of violence and mayhem in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, Syria is preventing the Lebanese army from entering the camp to disarm a small group of Sunni Muslim fundamentalists linked to Al-Qa'ida. The militants, believed to number between ten and fifteen, fled to the camp by boat in January 2000 following the failed Dinnieh uprising in north Lebanon.

Since mid-July there have been several clashes between the militants, who call themselves "Jaamat al-Nour" (the Group of Light), and Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, which maintains security in the camp. Most recently, two people were killed and eight wounded on August 13, when the group opened fire with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades on the headquarters of Fatah near the main entrance to the camp.

"The state has proven that it does not possess the effective authority over Lebanon's entire territory although it has the military power and public support to assert this authority," wrote Al-Nahar editor Gibran Tueni two days later in a front page editorial expressing the sentiments of most Lebanese.

Syria Releases 11 Lebanese Political Prisoners

In early August, after publicly insisting for over a year and a half that all Lebanese political prisoners in its jails have been released, the Syrian government quietly freed an additional 11 Lebanese detainees who had been imprisoned since the 1975-1990 civil war. Lebanese human rights groups estimate that hundreds of Lebanese remain imprisoned in Syria.