Three Israeli soldiers were killed and five wounded in a sharp escalation of fighting in south Lebanon yesterday, following Monday's killing outside Sidon in south Lebanon of a senior Hizbullah commander. Clashes raged for hours, and Israeli jets raided suspected guerrilla bases.
Although Israel is publicly denying responsibility for Monday's death of Mr Ali Hassan Deeb, blown up in his car, Hizbullah is adamant that the Israelis were to blame, and is threatening revenge.
Hizbullah claims Mr Deeb was assassinated by two remote-control bombs, detonated by an Israeli unmanned drone. Supporting this assertion is the fact that Israel tried to kill Mr Deeb, who is said to have topped its south Lebanon "most wanted" list, at least once before - firing at his car from a helicopter in April 1996 and killing two passengers.
Israeli military sources portray Mr Deeb (38) as precisely the kind of figure their commanders would want to eliminate - describing him as the Hizbullah operations chief in south Lebanon, organising attacks on Israeli troops there, responsible also for co-ordination with other anti-Israeli fundamentalist groups like Hamas, and somehow finding time, too, to personally oversee commando courses for Hizbullah recruits.
Israel's army chief-of-staff, Gen. Shaul Mofaz, asserted yesterday that Mr Deeb had fallen victim to "internal rivalries between the terrorist organisations in Lebanon." Other Israeli analysts suggested that Syria - seeking to foster a warmer relationship with Israel's new government - might have wanted Mr Deeb out of the way.
But the fact that Israel had made a previous attempt on Mr Deeb's life, combined with the evidence that it has assassinated at least three top Hizbullah commanders in recent years, rather undermined these alternative explanations.