In addition to recent reports of P.M. Olmert’s possible willingness to relinquish Israel’s control over Har Dov, Hizbullah is already threatening another area of northern Israel. Hizbullah commander Sheikh Abd-al-Amir Kiblan declared that the current ransom deal does not satisfy the terrorist organization. They want the Galilee. “It is our intention to liberate the Shia villages in northern Israel. These villages must return to their owners, to our land, and to our people,” he told the Hizbullah daily al-Akhbar.
During the 1948 War of Independence, many of the inhabitants of the seven Shia villages to which Hizbullah refers, which are located in Israel along the northern border, left for southern Lebanon at the conclusion of hostilities and were granted full Lebanese citizenship. Those that remained in their villages also received Lebanese citizenship.