BICOM

Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon said yesterday that Hezbollah and Iran have been increasing their efforts to open a front on Israel’s northern border.

His comments come a week after what was thought to have been an Israeli air strike which killed senior Hezbollah commanders and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general. Although Israel’s military has made no official comment, Israeli media reports said that those targeted were planning to strike Israel with rocket attacks, cross-border infiltrations, border bombings and anti-tank fire. Those killed included district commander Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of the late Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh, a notorious terror operative and Iranian Revolutionary Guards General Mohammad Allahdadi.

Speaking yesterday to Army Radio, Ya’alon did not explicitly comment on the source of last week’s raid, but said “Given what was prevented on the Golan Heights, what was exposed is an Iranian effort, in partnership with Hezbollah, to open a front with us on the Golan Heights.” He added, “They started with rockets and a few bombs. We understood that they apparently want to upgrade it to high-quality and far more significant terrorist attacks.”

Meanwhile, Arab-language daily Al-Hayat reports that Israel has warned Lebanon and Hezbollah via Western diplomatic channels against any retaliation for last week’s attack in Syria against targets abroad. Unnamed diplomats apparently told Al-Hayat that “Israel would hold Hezbollah responsible for any attack against its institutions and nationals [abroad], including areas known to be frequented by Israelis in far-off places around the globe.” Yesterday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheik Naim Qassem pledged, “We will continue our jihad … without (allowing) anything to stand in our way.”

Tension continued yesterday in northern Israel after the IDF closed a number of roads along the Lebanese border amid suspicions of a possible security incident in the area. However, the roads were soon reopened. Last week, the IDF deployed significant forces to the north in case of military repercussions to the Syria raid.