St.-Sgt. Elad Litvak, 21, from Kibbutz Gazit, was killed yesterday by an anti-tank missile fired by Hizbullah on the Israeli-Lebanese border. His tank was participating in an IDF operational mission in the Har (Mt.) Dov region. In response, Israel Air Force combat airplanes and IDF artillery attacked Hizbullah targets north of Har Dov. Litvak, the third soldier killed in the area since Israel\'s retreat from Lebanon last year, will be buried tomorrow afternoon in the military cemetery of Gazit.



President Moshe Katzav said that he hopes that the Lebanese government will not take steps that will return the situation to the \"darkness that marked recent Israeli-Lebanese relations… I hope that it will take responsibility for the area that is under its sovereignty.\"



Describing the situation in the north, a day after the third IDF soldier was killed there since the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon last May, former O.C. Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yossi Peled told Arutz-7 today, \"It is clearly not as bad as it was during 1982 [when the frequent attacks by PLO terrorists led to the Peace for Galilee War] - although it could deteriorate to that. But the fact that Hizbullah feels free to attack our forces whenever they feel like it, and does not receive back [from our forces] what it should, is interpreted by them not as our strength in restraint, but as a sign of our weakness…\"



Hizbullah claims that Israel has not lived up to its obligations to withdraw totally from Lebanon, because the disputed Shab\'a Farms are still under Israeli control. The UN supports Israel\'s position, but Shimon Romach, who served in the past as a top GSS commander in the north, said today that Israel should withdraw from the Shab\'a Farms:

\"Despite the UN findings, many Lebanese still feel that we are conquerors. The area, lying at the foot of Mt. Dov, has no strategic value to the side that controls Mt. Dov [Israel], and after withdrawing from so much of Lebanon, there is no reason for us to be stubborn over Shab\'a.\"



When asked if he agreed with Romach, Gen. Peled said,

\"What?! Maybe if we withdraw from Kiryat Shmonah, and Tel Aviv, and parts of Jerusalem, maybe then there will also be quiet - at least until they raise their next demand. We must understand that if we withdraw from every contested area, there may be quiet there, but then the shooting - and their territorial demands - will shift to another place.\"