This just in!!!

Israeli confirms Hizballah TV al Manar report of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped to trade for prisoners in Hizballah cross-border raid Wednesday morning

July 12, 2006, 11:16 AM (GMT+02:00)

Hizballah covered the abduction with heavy rocket-mortar fire into Israel, in which 11 Israeli civilians injured. Israeli air force is bombing bridges and Hizballah command posts in south Lebanon to block path of the Hizballah raiders with Israeli hostages. Israeli troops injured in earlier exchanges of fire on both sides of the borfer. The civilians were wounded in Lebanese rocket attacks on Zarit and Shetula. Northern Galilee residents ordered to bomb shelters.

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Last update - 11:01 12/07/2006
Hezbollah claims to have kidnapped 2 IDF soldiers during clashes on Israel-Lebanon border
By Amos Harel and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television station claimed on Wednesday morning that the Lebanese-militia had kidnapped two Israel Defense Forces soldiers on the northern border in the midst of massive shelling attacks on Israel's north.

The IDF said it has "serious concern" about fate of the two soldiers.

Two other Israelis were wounded when gunmen in Lebanon began pounding IDF positions along the border starting around 9 A.M.

The two Israelis were wounded by projectiles that slammed into Moshav Zarit. One was lightly to moderately wounded and the second was lightly wounded. Two other people suffered from shock. The wounded were evacuated to hospital in Nahariya.

Northern residents reported hearing massive sounds of gunfire and explosions. Residents of the northern were ordered to enter bomb shelters as heavy exchanges of fire were reported in the western sector of the border area.

Israel Defense Forces responded to the attacks from Lebanon with heavy artillery and tank fire. Al-Manar, the Hezbollah TV station, reported that IDF artillery was pounding the fringes of the villages of Aita el-Shaab, Ramieh and Yaroun in the hills east of the coastal border port of Naqoura. Israel Air Force aircraft were also striking Hezbollah positions in Lebanon.

The fighting apparently began when at least two rockets fired from south Lebanon exploded near Shlomi, located about 15 kilometers east of the Mediterranean coast, Reuters reported. Hezbollah guerrillas also attacked IDF positions in the Shaba Farms area to the east, Lebanese security sources said.

The exchanges of fire are the biggest upsurge of fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border since May 28.

The possibility of border clashes in the north was raised during security situation meetings over the past two weeks since the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit next to the Gaza Strip.
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The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
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