BEIRUT, APRIL 17: Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned Saturday that Israel's occupation of a South Lebanese village this week will not protect its soldiers from death and defeat in Lebanon.``The next few weeks and months will show that the occupation of Arnoun will not protect the Zionist soldiers, their convoys or their positions in this region,'' Nasrallah said in a statement. ``We will prove to the enemy that these measures will achieve nothing and that it will continue to be killed and defeated on Lebanese soil.''
Israeli soldiers, backed by tanks and troops from the the allied South Lebanon army militia, rolled into Arnoun on Thursday night and barricaded the village with barbed wire and trenches.
The village lies on the edge of Israel's self-declared `security zone' at the foot of Chateau Beaufort, Israel's largest military position in Lebanon.
Israel described its invasion of the almost-deserted village as a ``preventive security operation'' following repeated infiltrations of thevillage by Hezbollah terrorists and the planting of bombs in the area.
Hezbollah politburo chief Mohammad Raad, also a member of the Lebanese parliament, warned Friday that the Shiite Moslem movement would teach ``the enemy an unforgettable lesson''. Hezbollah spearheads the guerrilla war to end Israel's 21 year occupation of parts of Lebanon.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.