August 31, 2002	Saturday	Karachi, Jamadi-us-Saani 21, 1423

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TEL AVIV, Aug 30: Israel threatened Syria on Friday with “military escalation” if Hezbollah attacks are not prevented, a day after a rocket and mortar attack by the Lebanese militia wounded three soldiers.

The strike on the disputed Shebaa Farms border area came the same day as Israel itself came under heavy political criticism after its tanks killed four members of a Palestinian family in a botched operation in the Gaza Strip.

“Israel does not wish a military escalation, but if Syria, which pulls all the strings in Lebanon, wants to trigger one through Hezbollah, it should know that we will not sit idly by,” an Israeli official said.

That threat came on the heels of a warning by Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer after his meeting on Thursday with US Middle East envoy David Satterfield that “the Syrians and the Lebanese are playing with fire”. Israel captured the Shebaa Farms from Syria during the 1967 war, and the small mountainous area is now claimed by Lebanon, with the backing of Damascus.

CLASHES IN JENIN: Three Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians were wounded in fresh clashes in the Jenin refugee camp on Friday, security sources on both sides said.

Israeli military sources said two of the injured soldiers were in serious condition, while Palestinian security sources said one of the Palestinians was badly hurt in an exchange of fire as the soldiers were searching houses.

ARAFAT ADVISER: Arafat’s security adviser Mohammad Dahlan accused the Israeli army of sabotaging an accord that provides for an Israeli withdrawal from areas reoccupied since the beginning of the intifada in exchange for a Palestinian crackdown on militants.

“Chances of reaching a full implementation of this arrangement are very small,” he told Israel’s top-selling newspaper, Yediot Aharonot.

“What Ben Eliezer told me is encouraging, but the army is doing everything it can to torpedo the arrangement,” he said.—AFP