Israel quits Lebanon crisis talks UN soldiers monitor the situation in southern Lebanon Israeli officials have walked out of a meeting convened to try to prevent a further escalation of the tension in southern Lebanon. The walkout appears to be a response to the killing of an Israeli soldier in a rocket and mortar attack by suspected Hezbollah fighters. An unnamed delegate at the meeting is quoted as saying that the Israeli officials were pulled out on orders from their government before the meeting could officially open. Seventh killing Israeli military censors have prevented Israeli accounts of the incident emerging, but Lebanese officials say the soldier was killed and another was wounded at the Beaufort Castle base in Israel's self-declared security zone.
Lebanese officials say Israeli planes immediately launched air strikes in the area.
This is the seventh killing of an Israeli soldier in the security zone in recent weeks. The meeting in the Lebanese coastal town of Naqoura was a gathering of the panel charged with monitoring an agreement between Israel and Hezbollah called the 1996 Grapes of Wrath understanding. Twenty Lebanese civilians have been injured in the Israeli air strikes that started on Monday night. The strikes were launched in response to a sudden upsurge in attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli military targets in the security zone. Mixed signals Israel has been issuing mixed signals about its commitment to the 1996 understanding.