A group of 18 teenagers from Israel’s war-torn northern area and two adult companions arrived in the Hungarian capital Budapest Wednesday, August 16, for a nine-day holiday organized by the Hungarian Baptist Charity and Malev Hungarian Airlines.
As a teenager, they trained him to kill Christians and Jews as Beirut dissolved into the chaos of civil war. Before his 17th birthday, his fellow street warriors credited him with 223 kills — mostly against rival militias. Then a missionary witnessed to him in the streets about one who could remove the bloodguilt that drenched his hands. He listened long enough to lay his guns down forever.
In yet another example of Arab leaders advocating terrorism and violence to settle disagreements, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri said Lebanon has the right to fight for and “liberate by all means available” the disputed Sheba Farms area, including cross-border attacks by Hizb’Allah.
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz confirmed Tuesday that “significant” indirect contacts have been made with Hizb’Allah through German mediators over a prisoner exchange for three kidnapped Israeli soldiers, but played down reports of an imminent deal.
Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh dismissed weekend reports of an imminent prisoner swap with Hizb’Allah as disinformation on Sunday, quashing rumors of an election eve surprise.
Tensions increased over recent days in the disputed Har Dov region along the Israeli-Lebanese border, after Hizb’Allah forces set up a roadblock just outside the divided border village of Ghajar.
Three Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed and five wounded overnight in an Israeli air raid on a Syrian radar station near the Beirut-Damascus highway in eastern Lebanon.
Israel has sent a stern warning to Lebanon and Syria, after Hizbollah guerillas fired rockets at an Israeli patrol on the northern border Friday, killing an Israeli soldier.
Britain designated 21 groups as “terrorist” this week under a new anti-terrorism law designed to halt funding and support for militant groups based in the United Kingdom.
Hizb’Allah claimed on Monday to have captured a high ranking Israeli officer. ISRAEL RADIO reported later in the day that an Israeli citizen named Hanan Sheinbaum has indeed been kidnapped by the Lebanese terrorists. A Hizb’Allah representative interviewed by a foreign TV station said that the kidnapped Israeli is a Mossad agent.