TYRE, Lebanon, 21 June 2004 — US activists, accompanied by Hezbollah militants, toured yesterday southern Lebanon from where they threw stones on Israel, a day after Washington barred US officials from visiting the area.
The 12 activists met Sheikh Nabil Qaooq, the area’s top official of Hezbollah, which Washington deems a terrorist group, in the southern port city of Tyre.
The activists were then accompanied by three vehicles carrying unarmed Hezbollah fighters to the Fatima Gate former passageway in the village of Kfar Kila where some of them hurled stones on Israel, he said.
Hala Gorssy, a Palestinian-American lawyer, said “we are visiting Hezbollah because they have a cause and they are fighting to liberate their land.”
She was referring to continued Hezbollah operations in the Shebaa Farms border territory seized by Israel from Syria in 1967, and claimed by Lebanon, with consent from Damascus.
Gorssy also said the group’s visit was meant to “check on the conditions of the Palestinian refugees and gather information for a documentary to show the US public opinion that they (Palestinians) have a cause.”
Earlier yesterday, the group toured Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and southern Lebanon, said Ghassan Hbeishi, from the Palestinian Organization for Human Rights which is hosting the US delegation in Lebanon. Hbeishi said the group included lawyers, legal advisers and movie directors.
The visit comes a day after the US State Department barred US diplomats and other government staff in Lebanon from traveling to certain areas south of Beirut due to security concerns.
Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace yesterday, triggering retaliatory anti-aircraft fire that Israeli sources said sent shrapnel over the border into Israel.
The jets broke the sound barrier near the southern coastal town of Naqura, where United Nations peacekeepers have their headquarters just a few miles from the frontier. The warplanes had entered Lebanese airspace further east where they drew four bursts of machine gun fire.
, declining to specify whether it came from the Lebanese Army or Hezbollah fighters.
Military sources in Israel said it was Hezbollah and that shrapnel from the anti-aircraft fire fell in the border area of Shomra, around 20 km from the coast.
