Officer Killed as Hezbollah Increases Attacks in Israel

(IFM) Israel Defense Forces Captain Sharon Elmakias who was killed in a Hezbollah-staged roadside bomb attack on Sunday, was laid to rest Monday at the Atlit cemetery, Israel radio, Kol Yisrael reported. Elmakias, a 23-year-old from Atlit, had served in the Golani Brigades for five years and was due to leave the army in two months. He is survived by his parents and two sisters. Three other soldiers were wounded in the Hezbollah attack during which an explosive device was detonated as an IDF convoy passed through the Har Dov area in northern Israel.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Hezbollah has stepped up its involvement in terrorist operations in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. A senior defense official said that the Lebanese terror group had invested at least $9 million in 2004 to carry out attacks against targets in Israel - a sum which represents about 10 percent of the group's annual budget. The official added that during last year, Hezbollah had been responsible for about 20 percent of the operations against Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Hezbollah’s attack on Sunday sparked heavy exchanges of fire between IDF forces and the terror group’s members, which lasted for almost three hours. Retaliatory fire from IDF gunship killed a French officer serving with UNIFIL, and wounded a Swedish soldier from the international peacekeeping force.