CAIRO, EGYPT, 1999 FEB 7 -- Egypt's Foreign Ministry issued a
statement just after noon blasting Israel for bombing civilian
vehicles outside the "buffer zone" maintained in the south of Lebanon.
Egypt called the attacks a "double violation of the Grapes of Wrath
agreement."  Egypt referred specifically to the portions of the
agreement stipulating that only military targets were to be attacked,
and attacks were to be conducted only in the "buffer zone."

Egypt also noted that these attacks have the potential to escalate the
conflict in southern Lebanon.  They are the latest in a series of
bloody reprisals between Israeli Defense Forces and the Hezbollah.  So
far, two days of spordic fighting have left hundreds dead and thousands
wounded in Lebanon and Israel; most of them civilians.