The Lebanese government vowed yesterday to crush any attempt on the Lebanese side to breach the truce in the conflict with Israel, a day after the U.N. condemned an Israeli raid on Hizbollah as a truce violation. ?The army will be very tough in dealing with such an issue,? Lebanese Defense Minister Elias al-Murr told a news conference.

?Any rocket fired from Lebanon will benefit Israel,? he said, suggesting such an incident would provide a pretext for the Jewish state to attack Lebanon. Murr said the army now controlled the entire border with Syria and would crack down on arms shipments. ?There is no flexibility on arms smuggling,? he said. The minister said he was confident Hizbollah would stick to the truce and not try to rearm.

?Violation by the Israeli side?

Israeli warplanes flew reconnaissance missions over Lebanon yesterday, a day after an Israeli commando raid deep into the country strained the U.N.-backed truce that ended Israel?s 34-day war with Hizbollah. Witnesses and Lebanese security sources said high-altitude flights covered virtually the whole country, from its wartorn south to close to the border with Syria in the north and east.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Israel?s raid on a Hizbollah stronghold deep in Lebanon on Saturday had violated the truce that went into effect on August 14. ?The secretary-general is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities as laid out in Security Council resolution 1701,? a spokesman for Annan said in a statement posted on the U.N. Web site.

Israel said the operation, in which commandos were airlifted into the area by helicopter, was defensive and designed to disrupt weapons supplies to Hizbollah from Syria and Iran. It denied it had violated the resolution, which allows it to act in self-defense, and accused Hizbollah of doing so by smuggling weapons.

A senior United Nations envoy in Beirut, Terje Roed-Larsen, said that if the guerrilla group was found to have smuggled weapons, it would be in breach of the truce.

One Israeli soldier was killed and two wounded when the commandos clashed with Hizbollah guerrillas near the village of Bodai, 26 km (16 miles) from the Syrian border. Hizbollah denied it had suffered any casualties after security sources in Lebanon said three guerrillas were killed.

?Crime against humanity?

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora described the operation as ?a naked violation of the cessation of hostilities declared by the Security Council?.

The U.N. statement said Annan spoke to Siniora, adding Annan had called on all parties ?to respect strictly the arms embargo, exercise maximum restraint (and) avoid provocative actions?.

Annan also discussed the raid with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who ?pointed out the importance of supervision of the Syrian-Lebanese border?, an Israeli official said.

Syria, like Iran, denies arming Hizbollah. Siniora inspected damage at Beirut?s southern suburbs yesterday, a Hizbollah stronghold ravaged by Israeli air strikes.

?There is no other way to describe this more than it is a criminal act,? he said in Haret Hreik. ?This is a crime against humanity committed by Israel here and in other areas of Lebanon.?

Fifty French military engineers disembarked in Naqoura in the south on Saturday, in line with a U.N. plan for southern Lebanon which envisages a 30,000-strong force in the area made up of Lebanese and U.N. troops.

At least 1,183 people in Lebanon and 157 Israelis have been killed in the conflict that erupted last month. Israel said it killed more than 530 Hizbollah fighters ? at least five times more than the group has acknowledged. Hizbollah buried 54 guerrillas across Lebanon on Saturday.

The conflict began after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12, saying it wanted to trade them for Lebanese and Arab prisoners held in Israel.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian and wounded at least two others yesterday at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, Israel Radio said.

Laila BASSAM