Smoke rises after Israeli helicopters attacked targets in Lebanon

EITA AL-SHAAB, Lebanon, July 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A day after accusing Israel of killing one of its senior members, Hizbullah said it killed two Israeli soldiers and lost one of its own fighters in border clashes Tuesday, July 20.

The Lebanese resistance party accused the Israeli army of triggering the shooting unprovoked, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

It said Israeli forces shelled its positions by the town of Eita Al-Shaab and that one of its fighters was killed.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Jean Obeid has given instructions to Lebanon's UN envoy to hold consultations "on the possibility of calling a special Security Council meeting to condemn the Israeli aggressions," his ministry said.

However, confirming the fatalities, the Israeli army claimed Hizbullah of igniting the cross-border shooting.

"There was a deliberate attack by Hizbullah snipers on a Tshahal (army) position in the western area of the border. Two soldiers have been killed," Israeli Captain Jacob Dallal told AFP.

"The army has responded to the shooting," he alleged.

A spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said they "don't really know who fired first."

The fighting was the most serious since May, when Hizbullah killed an Israeli soldier and wounded five others in the Lebanese occupied Shebaa Farms.

Hizbullah held Monday, July 19, Israel accountable for the assassination of one of its senior members in a car bomb.

It was the first assassination of a Hizbullah member since last year when Ali Al-Saleh was killed in a similar car bombing in Beirut's southern suburbs.

The hostilities occurred well away from the Shebaa Farms, closer to the Mediterranean coast.

Hizbullah fought Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon before Tel Aviv was forced to withdraw its troops in May 2000.