Israel played down prospects of war with Syria after Israeli warplanes struck a Syrian anti-aircraft post in Lebanon today in retaliation for an attack by Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas on Israeli soldiers.
"No, no, no," Israeli Defence Minister Mr Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, shaking his head, told reporters who asked about chances of wider conflict with Syria.
"Thank God we are surrounded by countries that if they have anything in common, it is not to lead the Middle East into war," he said. "I am sure it is not in Syria's interests to do that."
At least three soldiers - two Syrians and one Lebanese -were wounded in the Israeli air raid on the strategic Bekaa Valley, where Syria has a large concentration of the more than 20,000 troops it keeps in Lebanon.
The Syrian-backed Hizbollah movement responded by firing at Israeli positions on the Lebanon border, in the disputed Shebaa Farms area. Israeli artillery in turn shelled the Lebanese border town of Kfar Shouba, wounding at least one person.
The cycle of violence began on Friday when Hizbollah guerrillas fired anti-tank missiles at two Israeli frontier posts, wounding a soldier. Israel said Syria, the main powerbroker in Lebanon, gave Hizbollah the green light to attack.
Hizbollah, Lebanon and Syria view Shebaa Farms as Lebanese territory and say Israel's presence there means that its May 2000 troop withdrawal from south Lebanon remains incomplete.
The United Nations, which certified that Israel had ended its 22-year-long occupation of south Lebanon, says the Shebaa Farms region is Syrian land captured by Israel in 1967.
Israeli warplanes last hit the Syrian army in Lebanon in April, when they struck a radar station, killing three soldiers, after a Hizbollah attack at Shebaa killed an Israeli soldier.
The Israeli government determines that the criminal activities of the Hizbollah are taking place with the knowledge and backing of Syria, Israel's security cabinet said.
The latest violence flared as the fate of a U.S.-led plan for ending nine months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed in which nearly 600 people have been killed, hung in the balance.