BEIRUT, 20 August 2006 — Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah bastion yesterday in what Lebanon called a “naked violation” of the UN-backed truce that halted Israel’s 34-day war with the Lebanese group.

Israel said the operation in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley aimed to disrupt weapons supplies to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran. Both countries deny arming the group.

Defense Minister Elias Murr threatened to halt deployment of Lebanese troops if the United Nations did not intervene against Israel. “If there are no clear answers forthcoming on this issue, I might be forced to recommend to the Cabinet early next week the halt of the army deployment in the south,” he told reporters.

After an evening meeting with UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, Murr said the UN official was traveling to Israel and would discuss the matter there. Roed-Larsen said if the report about the Israeli commando raid in Baalbek was true, the incident would be “a clear violation” of the cease-fire agreement.

“It is a naked violation of the cessation of hostilities declared by the Security Council,” Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told reporters, referring to the Aug. 11 resolution.

Hezbollah said none of its fighters was killed or hurt. Israel said it had suffered one dead and two wounded.

Lebanese security sources said Israeli helicopters unloaded two vehicles carrying commandos who headed toward an office of a Hezbollah leader, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, in the village of Bodai. They were intercepted and they withdrew under cover of airstrikes, they said. Bodai is 15 km northwest of the ancient city of Baalbek.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said such incursions may continue until the Lebanese Army and the UN peacekeeping force was in control of the Syrian border to ensure against aid and arms reaching Hezbollah.

Israel did not give the name or rank of the officer killed in the raid. Hezbollah issued a terse statement in which it said its fighters “ambushed” the commando force and none of the Hezbollah fighters was hurt.

Witnesses said Israeli missiles destroyed a bridge during the fighting. Overflights by Israeli jet fighters drowned the clatter of helicopters as they flew into the foothills of the central Lebanese mountains, dropping commandos and two vehicles, Hezbollah officials on the scene said. The commandos then drove into Bodai, and when Hezbollah fighters intercepted them in a field, the commandos identified themselves as the Lebanese Army, the officials said. The fighters grew suspicious and gunfire erupted, they said. Israeli helicopters fired missiles as the commandos withdrew and flew out of the area an hour later.

The raid coincided with a Lebanese Army deployment in the south. The UN resolution also called for a strengthened UN force to support the Lebanese Army.

Fifty French military engineers disembarked at UNIFIL’s base in Naqoura in the south, the first reinforcements since the war.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said yesterday that nations with military ties to Israel must not be part of the UN peacekeeping force. “All that we ask for is that the countries which will send troops must not have military agreements with Israel and that troops be equal in numbers so that no country’s troops dominates the other,” Lahoud said in comments distributed by his office.