UPDATED Israel-Lebanon: Border Clash Kills At Least 4 Soldiers, Journalist (Al Jazeera)

UPDATE 1525 GMT: Israel Defense Forces have confirmed that Lieutenant Colonel Dov Harari was killed in today's skirmish. A platoon commander, Captain Ezra Lakia, has been seriously wounded.

Al Jazeera reports:

At least three Lebanese soldiers have been killed by Israeli forces during an exchange of rocket and gunfire along the border between the two countries.

A journalist was also killed, and five more Lebanese soldiers wounded in the Israeli shelling on Tuesday.

"The Israelis fired four rockets that fell near a Lebanese army position in the village of Adaisseh and the Lebanese army fired back," a Lebanese security official in the area said.

MENA House: “Iranian” Rockets Used in Attacks on Israel and Jordan

Hezbollah's Al Manar television station said a high-ranking Israeli soldier was also killed in the border incident. The report could not be independently verified, and the Israeli army refused to comment.

Lebanese news sources reported that the journalist killed was Assaf Abou Rahhal, from the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar.

Lebanese witnesses said that Israeli shells are continuing to hit Adaisseh village.

The clashes erupted after Israeli soldiers reportedly attempted to uproot trees on the Lebanese side of the border.

Read rest of article....

Comments

[Jtaylorbasker]

Why did the Israeli army have to uproot a tree on the Lebanese side for a better view and not just put up a taller post for their surveillance cameras instead? The photo shows clearly that the Israeli crane and soldier were in Lebanese territory. Is this a deliberate provocation or just stupid? One tree = 1 Israeli officer dead and 3 Lebanese soldiers and 1 Lebanese journalist dead. The Tree of Death v. the Tree of Life.

[Dave]

Sounds a lot like the Hatchet Incident in 1976. American and S. Korean forces chopped down a tree along the DMZ. Soldiers also died in that conflict.

[Cassius Corodes]

Jtaylorbasker - the IDF does this from time to time, and each time it notifies the UN stationed in south Lebanon as part of the standard protocol, and the UN notifies Lebanon. Despite the fence being crossed, according to the IDF (and in this article) it still was in Israeli territory as they have built that fence a bit back from the actual border. Taking all this into consideration its either some kind of misunderstanding with low level troops not being notified by Lebanese command or this was a planned attack on the IDF by rouge elements within the Lebanese army (which is hardly the paragon of reliability).