Four Hezbollah men were killed during a multi-pronged attack on Israel Defense Forces positions on the northern border with Lebanon on Monday afternoon. The gunmen apparently infiltrated Israel's border in an attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers.

At least 10 Israelis were wounded in the Hezbollah attacks, including a civilian resident of the border village of Rajar, were wounded in the incident. The Rajar man was lightly wounded by mortar shrapnel.

One of the Israelis was seriously wounded.

Hezbollah operatives attacked a number of Israeli targets simultaneously. Gunners began firing mortar shells at IDF outposts in the Har Dov area. At the same time, a Hezbollah cell crossed the border in Ghajar and opened fire on an IDF outpost there.

The Hezbollah kidnapping attempt was foiled when alert IDF units responded rapidly and returned fire, targeting Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah men also fired light arms at Israeli farmers working in fields near Metula and launched a Katyusha rocket at the northern town. An anti-tank missile scored a direct hit on a Metula house. There were no casualties as the family was not home at the time.

Residents of Nahariya, Metula and other northern communities were ordered into bomb shelters. Security forces closed roads across the north and evacuated civilians touring in the region.

After IDF troops killed the infiltrators and darkness fell, Hezbollah gunners continued to pound Israeli communities the length of the northern border. The sounds of projectile impacts were reported from the western Galilee to the "Galilee Finger" region in the east.

Municipal workers reported four shells hit the western Galilee town of Shlomi.

Al-Manar, Hezbollah's television network, broadcast a statement made by the organization according to which Monday's fighting broke out after an IDF jeep crossed into Lebanese territory in Rajar.

This marked the first clash between the two sides in five months.

The defense establishment said Sunday that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah was planning widespread terrorist attacks in northern Israel.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met Sunday afternoon for a security consultation to discuss the potential threat posed by Hezbollah's recent irregular activity in the Har Dov region, along Israel's border with Lebanon.

The defense establishment said it believes Hezbollah is considering intensifying attacks along the border in an attempt to draw attention away from the heavy international criticism of Syrian President Bashar Assad following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Mofaz said that it is likely that the pressure being applied on Assad will lead him to abandon terror and evict terror headquarters from Damascus. He regarded this as a positive development for Israel.

Shaba Farms has become the focus of Hezbollah attacks on IDF troops since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah attacks the enclave periodically; the last time was in June, when an IDF soldier was killed.

Lebanon and Syria say the area is Lebanese territory, but United Nations cartographers who surveyed the border after the Israeli withdrawal said it belongs to that part of Syria which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Iranian-and Syrian-backed Hezbollah is under international pressure to disarm. A UN Security Council resolution passed last year demanded that all militias in Lebanon give up their weapons. The guerrilla group has refused, and has so far been supported by the Lebanese government, which claims Hezbollah is not a militia but a movement resisting Israeli occupation.

The Lebanese government has rejected repeated UN and U.S. demands to deploy the army along the country's southern border, saying it will not serve as an Israeli protection force. This has enabled Hezbollah to control security in the border area.