BICOM

Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon confirmed yesterday that Israel had received a message from the United Nations (UN) relayed from Hezbollah that it is not looking to further escalate tensions on Israel’s northern borders.

Ya’alon said, “Indeed, a message was received … There are lines of coordination between us and Lebanon via UNIFIL [the UN peacekeeping force] and such a message was indeed received from Lebanon.” It comes after recent tensions spiked this week when a Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack killed two Israeli soldiers on Tuesday, who were travelling in a convoy near the Lebanon border. Seven additional soldiers were injured in the attack.

The Hezbollah attack appears to be retaliation for what was thought to have been an Israeli air strike last week in Syria which killed senior Hezbollah commanders and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general, reportedly planning to strike Israel. Tensions further increased earlier this week when rockets were fired from Syria into the northern part of the Israeli Golan Heights. The IDF responded with artillery fire and recorded a direct hit at the source of the rockets.

Although a tentative calm has descended on Israel’s northern borders since Wednesday, Ya’alon cautioned, “I can’t say whether the events are behind us … Until the area completely calms down, the Israel Defence Forces will remain prepared and ready.”

Yesterday, the two soldiers killed in Wednesday’s attack, Staff Sgt. Dor Chaim Nini, 20, and Maj. Yochai Kalangel, 25 were laid to rest. Large crowds of mourners attended Nini’s funeral near his home in Shtulim and Kalangel’s funeral at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo yesterday called for the UN to conduct an “immediate, exhaustive and complete” investigation into the death of one of its peacekeepers, Corporal Francisco Javier Soria Toledo. Serving in the UNIFIL force, Toledo who was caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah following Wednesday’s attack.