Israel's reaction 'unexpected'

2006-07-25 22:25

Beirut - A senior Hezbollah official said on Tuesday they hadn't expected Israel to react so strongly to the capture of two Israeli soldiers last month.

Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, also told The Associated Press that his group would not lay down arms.

This is the first time that a leader from the group has suggested it miscalculated the consequences of the July 12 cross-border raid that seized the two.

"The truth is - let me say this clearly - we didn't even expect (this) response... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," said Komati.

He said Hezbollah had expected "the usual, limited response" from Israel.

In the past, he said, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions had included sending commandos into Lebanon and kidnapping Hezbollah officials or briefly targeting specific Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Prisoner swop

He said his group had also anticipated negotiations to swop the soldiers with three Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it had in past prisoner exchanges.

Komati also gave higher casualty figures for Hezbollah than the 11 the group had reported so far in the 13-day-old conflict.

He said that as of Monday 25 had been killed, including 17 in ground fighting with Israeli troops in south Lebanese border towns.

Later on Tuesday, Hezbollah said two more had died.

Israel has said Hezbollah is greatly underreporting its casualties.

The Israeli army chief of staff, Brigadier-General Udi Nehushtan, said on Tuesday in Jerusalem that "dozens" of Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the past two weeks.

Despite Israel's and Hezbollah's claims about the number of fighters killed, it was not possible to independently determine the number, or sometimes to distinguish between civilians and fighters.

The health ministry said on Tuesday that 375 civilians had been killed in the campaign, in addition to 20 Lebanese soldiers.

The Hezbollah claim on the death toll would bring the total to 422 dead in Lebanon.

At least 41 Israelis have been killed in the campaign - 24 of them soldiers.

- AP