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Lebanese guerrillas have captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, triggering the first Israeli incursion into the country since 2000.
Planes struck outposts of the Hezbollah militant group in south Lebanon, as well as roads, killing two civilians.

Israel has called up reserve troops, signalling a large-scale campaign, as operations continue to free a soldier seized by Palestinians in Gaza in June.

Israel's PM Ehud Olmert said the attack was an "act of war" by Lebanon.

Mr Olmert has said he holds Lebanon responsible for the fate of the two soldiers and that it would pay a "heavy price".

The prime minister has called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss further action, although he has already ruled out negotiations.

"The Lebanese government, of which Hezbollah is a part, is trying to shake regional stability," he said at a press conference in Jerusalem.

"We are already responding with great strength," he said, threatening "very painful and far-reaching" action.

Soldiers' search

Israeli ground troops have entered southern Lebanon to search for the two soldiers, for the first time since Israel ended its occupation of south Lebanon six years ago.

Several thousand reservists will be deployed along the border, officials say.

The news of the clashes comes as a major Israeli offensive is under way in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in Israel over two weeks ago.

Overnight, Israel carried out an air strike on a Gaza City house, killing at least six people and injuring 15.

On Wednesday morning, Hezbollah launched dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortar bombs at the Israeli town of Shlomi and at Israeli outposts in the disputed Shebaa Farms area.

Later on Wednesday, Hezbollah said its fighters had destroyed an Israeli tank attempting to cross the border. An Israeli military spokeswoman said there had been a number of casualties.

Two civilians were killed when Israeli planes bombed a road bridge on major route though southern Lebanon.

Civilians in northern Israel have been told to stay in their shelters.

The UN representative in Lebanon, Geir Pedrson, has condemned the escalation and called on Hezbollah to release the soldiers.

Call for swap

Hezbollah said it captured the two Israeli soldiers at 0904 (0704 GMT).

A statement from the group said the two were taken to a "safe place". It did not mention whether they were alive or dead or injured.

The group says it has captured the soldiers to secure the release of detainees held in Israeli prisons.

"Fulfilling its pledge to liberate the prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance... captured two Israeli soldiers at the border with occupied Palestine," the Hezbollah statement said.

Hezbollah captured three Israeli soldiers in 2000. They died during the operation, but four years later, the group was able to exchange their bodies for 430 Palestinians and Lebanese held in Israeli jails.

BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says the capture of two Israeli soldiers is a dramatic gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians - and at the same time adds to the pressures on the Israeli government.

Complicating the picture is the fact that the Lebanese group has the backing of both Syria and Iran.

Israel and American officials are already saying Syria must bear some of the blame for the capture of a young Israeli soldier in Gaza last month - because it plays host to part of the Hamas leadership.

Pressure on Syria - as well as on the Lebanese government - will now intensify, our analyst adds.

Jay

Holy $hit! Israel is going to fight both these neighbours now?

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A grain of wheat eclipsed the sun of Adam !!

raj

they are used to it, and i do pray that ISRAEl comes out victorious on both fronts

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saw this in some site dont remember the name tough

Tronic

no doubt they will...

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Nabha Sparasham Deeptam
-Touch The Sky With Glory

platinum786

well it is an act of war, i think this would an interesting time for arab nations to sponsor a long term gurilla war against Israel using hit and run and "terrorist" tactics to tie in the IDF into a quagmire, apart from that the arebs have no chance of winning any war.

hopefully the whole issue will just de-escalate.

Tronic

haha.. the Arabs try that, and soon if you plan to piss off the Israelis that much, the whole of middle east would be under the Israeli flags... but I can see where you're coming from... "if you don't have the balls to fight, then do it covertly"... just like Pakistan and the ISI... maybe you can teach the Arab world your tactics...

Confed999

The USA should stand with them...

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No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

MsPalestine08

Stand with Israel?
The US IS ISRAEL....

Confed999

ROTFL

Parihaka

They've been doing that for thirty years, hasn't worked for them so far...

Jay

So, can we say that you guys abducted a US soldier and it can retribute the abduction?

sparten

You are forgetting the last time they went into Lebanon. Or the War of attrition. In both cases the Israelis forgot old Moshe's dictim about not fightintg a long war.

So the IDF once more unto the breach?

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"Any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy, which qualifies life for immortality." ~ George William Russell

Parihaka

Same old same old. As I said somewhere else, both sides continue to repeat the same old mistakes.

sparten

The Israelis have also given the Syrians the perfect excuse to reenter Lebanon. The thank you card in Jeruselum is from Damascus.

HistoricalDavid

Watch your language young man, I am the Internet.