Border clashes flare after Hezbollah attack on Israeli army convoy (LIVE BLOG)

Signing off

This live blog is now closed.

The scene of the attack and the aftermath

Netanyahu says those behind deadly border attack will pay the price

Reuters — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said attackers who killed two Israeli soldiers near the Israeli-Lebanese frontier would be held responsible.

"Those behind the attack today will pay the full price," Netanyahu said as he launched consultations with security chiefs on a possible further response to the anti-tank rocket assault blamed on the Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Israel's national security discourse and upcoming elections

In this analysis in Newsweek, media historian Marc Schulman writes, "This attack is one in a series of events that have taken place in the past few weeks, seemingly changing the public agenda from its focus on domestic issues to focus on issues of national security."

Read on here.

Israel tells UN it will defend itself against Hezbollah

Reuters — Israel told the UN Security Council on Wednesday it will take all necessary measures to defend itself after an exchange of fire between Hezbollah militants and Israel that has raised the threat of a full-blown conflict.

"Israel will not stand by as Hezbollah targets Israelis," Israel's UN Ambassador Ron Prosor said in a letter to the Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"Israel will not accept any attacks on its territory and it will exercise its right to self-defense and take all necessary measures to protect its population," he added.

Explainer on Lebanon's Hezbollah

This BBC profile on Lebanon's Hezbollah movement is an important read to understand the history of the group that carried out the deadly assault on an Israeli army convoy today. Hezbollah "emerged with the help of Iran during the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the early 1980s, though its ideological roots stretch back to the Shia Islamic revival in Lebanon in the 1960s and '70s," the BBC piece states. Read the rest here.

Details on the location of the attack

More from The Los Angeles Times:

The attack on the Israeli convoy occurred in the Shebaa Farms area, which is held by Israel but viewed by Hezbollah as Lebanese territory. The was approaching Har-Dov when anti-tank missiles were fired across the border from Lebanon, hitting at least one of the vehicles, which were not armored despite an ongoing heightened alert.

2 soldiers confirmed dead

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in Hezbollah's attack, Israel Defense Forces says.

The incident that prompted today's attack

UN peacekeeper killed

Agence France-Presse — A UN peacekeeper was killed Wednesday in southern Lebanon, a spokesman said, as Israel shelled areas near the border after Hezbollah targeted its vehicles.

"We can confirm that one UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) peacekeeper was killed. As a matter of policy, we do not give the nationality until the family is informed," spokesman Andrea Tenenti said. He was unable to specify the source of fire that killed the soldier. 

Hezbollah attacks an Israeli military convoy

GlobalPost's Richard Hall reports from Beirut, Lebanon: 

Hezbollah fighters targeted an Israeli army convoy near the border between the two countries on Wednesday, prompting a retaliatory barrage of Israeli shell fire into southern Lebanon.

The attack, coming 10 days after an Israeli airstrike killed a number of Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general in Syria, marks a significant escalation of tensions between the two sides, which fought a bitter war in 2006 that left more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians dead.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack on the convoy of several military vehicles, which were moving through a narrow strip of territory on the border between Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

The Lebanese militant group said that the attack was carried out by the “al-Quneitra Martyr's Brigade” — a reference to the area where Hezbollah member Jihad Mughniyeh and several other fighters were killed in an Israeli airstrike last week.

"11:25am this morning, al-Quneitra Martyr's group targeted an Israeli convoy with specialised heavy duty rockets in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa farms area. The convoy included Israeli artillery, an officer and several soldiers many of whom were injured," the statement read.

Two Lebanese officials told AP that the Israeli shelling targeted the border villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba near the Shebaa Farms area — land that used to belong to Syria but which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.