As Israel yesterday marked the first anniversary of its unilateral troop withdrawal from south Lebanon, a small Cessna plane, with an unlicensed pilot on board, flew across that ultra-tense border and towards central Israel, sending the country's military into high alert.
The plane was finally shot down north of the coastal town of Netanya, and the pilot's body crashed through the roof of a navy training school, landing in the assistant principal's office.
Lebanese officials, while describing the pilot as "mentally unstable" and acknowledging that he had taken off from Beirut without clearance, blamed Israel for his death, insisting that Israeli planes had intercepted the Cessna over Lebanese air space and "escorted" it into Israeli air space.
Israeli officials denied this.
The Israeli air force chief, Commander Dan Halutz, said Israel had been monitoring the plane from the moment it took off because it immediately learned from the "normal international channels" that the flight was not cleared. Efforts to force the pilot to turn back began only after he crossed into Israeli air space.
The Hizbullah group, whose leaders have recently been vowing to intensify anti-Israeli activities in support of the Palestinian Intifada, claimed to have had nothing to do with the flight. However, its officials were among the first to identify the pilot, an Armenian-born Lebanese citizen named Stefan Nikolian.
Hizbullah gunmen effectively forced Israel to pull its troops out of Lebanon last May. A few days ago, foreign TV crews were given guided tours by Hizbullah of its border missile deployments.
In central Beirut yesterday, Hizbullah marked the anniversary by exhibiting military equipment abandoned by Israel during the hurried withdrawal.
Israeli officials said last night they had feared the pilot was carrying explosives or that he intended to crash into a crowded town in central Israel. Commander Halutz said all efforts to contact the pilot by radio failed and he ignored hand signals to turn back or land from Israeli pilots.
Further south, Israeli-Palestinian violence continued. Palestinian officials said Israeli troops killed a deaf Palestinian teenager, Shadi Siyam, near the Gaza-Egypt border during a gunfight when two Israeli tanks and a bulldozer moved towards a refugee camp. Neighbours said he was standing in front of his house unaware of the exchange of fire.
Mr Muhammad Dahlan, head of the Palestinian security forces in Gaza, said Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon's order to his troops to cease fire unless their lives were in danger was "a ploy" and that the violence, including Israeli incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory, proved its "falseness".
Israel's Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, in turn castigated Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat for not only failing to order a ceasefire but instructing his people to intensify violence.
The International Committee of the Red Cross will refrain from referring to Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank and Gaza as a "war crime" but maintains its position that the policy is contrary to international law, the ICRC said yesterday. It was responding to a letter from US Congressman Mr Eliot Engel calling on the Red Cross to clarify its stance on the issue.