Three rocket-propelled grenades and a MAG machine gun have been found in a backpack hidden in foliage about a kilometer from the spot where Israel Defense Forces soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were kidnapped in July of last year.

According to the IDF, the supplies are believed to be connected to the Hezbollah militants responsible for the soldiers' kidnapping six months ago.

	Advertisement

The patrol found the supplies within Israeli territory, but on the Lebanese side of the Israeli-constructed border fence. The action represents the first time Israeli soldiers have crossed the border fence since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in the wake of the second Lebanon war.

Northern Command sources said today that "we are dealing with actions across the border fence carried out within the framework of a shift in the IDF's modus operandi."

"The aim is to ensure operational effectiveness, while preventing Hezbollah from reestablishing itself along the border and thus maintaining the successful results of the war," the sources added.

Soldiers from the Golani infantry brigade conducting night searches about one kilometer to the west of the kidnapping site found a backpack containing three RPGs, a MAG machine gun, LAU missile shell casings and some shoes. The discovered items have been passed on to investigators to ascertain whether they hold any clues to the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping.

Following the kidnapping, the IDF suggested that the operation was carefully planned and that Hezbollah had placed arms and supplies in hidden locations along the border to facilitate the action.