Amid another escalation of violence in southern Lebanon, Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday publicly offered for the first time to fulfil the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 425 and withdraw all Israeli troops from the area, provided that the "necessary security safeguards" could be arranged.
Mr Netanyahu's conditional offer to implement the 20-year-old UN resolution came as the pro-Iranian Hizbullah movement, which is fighting to force Israeli troops out of the so-called security zone in southern Lebanon and back to the international border, registered new damage: four Israeli soldiers were injured in the zone in clashes with Hizbullah yesterday; on Thursday, three soldiers were killed and two others injured by Hizbullah shelling of a highly-fortified Israeli position.
Among the dead was Assaf Rosenfeld, who was the commanding officer of the immigrant soldier, Nikolai Rappaport, whose body was flown back to the Caucasus after he was killed in south Lebanon three weeks ago.
Israeli military sources note that Hizbullah is taking heavy losses as well: three of its gunmen were killed in the clashes yesterday. But the escalating Israeli death toll - 39 soldiers were killed in south Lebanon last year - is prompting calls from parents and some military analysts for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from the security zone.
Mr Netanyahu said he had "no qualms" about the UN resolution, and that Israel was "interested in leaving Lebanon". The problem is that the "safeguards" he seeks as a pre-condition for that departure include the disarming of Hizbullah by the Lebanese army, and the deployment of Lebanese troops near the border.
The Lebanese government, following the dictates of Syria, says it won't act against Hizbullah until after the Israelis leave.
Meanwhile, having initially declined to issue a formal apology, Israel's Foreign Ministry Director-General, Mr Eitan Bentzur, yesterday sent a letter of regret to the Swiss government over the activities of five Mossad agents caught last week by police in Berne bugging a residence on the city's outskirts.
Swiss officials said yesterday that the Israeli apology had been accepted, and that the diplomatic complications regarding the affair had now been resolved.
Only one of the agents remains in detention.