Will Hezbollah hit back at Israel?
Amid escalating tensions on Israel’s northern border with Syria and Lebanon, Israeli officials attempted to send a message of business as usual while beefing up defenses in the north. Israel refused to confirm or deny it was behind two airstrikes in Syria in less than 48 hours, reportedly targeting long-range rockets being transferred from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left on a five-day trip to China Sunday as scheduled but he delayed the trip by a few hours to hold consultations with his security Cabinet. Israel also deployed two Iron Dome anti-missile batteries near the cities of Haifa and Safed in northern Israel.
“Iron Dome batteries are deployed from time to time in different locations across the country according to security assessments,” an Israeli Army spokesman said in a statement. “The system is currently being deployed in the northern region.” Israel was not surprised by the verbal condemnations of the alleged Israeli strikes from Syria and Iran.
“Israel’s aggression will bring Syria to declare war against it,” warned Syrian Information Minister Omran Al-Zoabi.
Yet most Israeli analysts said that Syrian President Bashar Assad is too busy fighting opposition forces to want to open another front against Israel. According to news reports, Israel bombed the same weapons manufacturing plant in January and despite posturing, Assad did not retaliate.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the sale of the attack was beyond the capabilities of Syrian fighters and quoted eyewitnesses in the area saying they saw jets in the sky at the time of the explosions.
Syrian fighters, who have been fighting Assad, issued a tepid response to the alleged Israeli attacks.
“Of course the Free Syrian Army and any Syrian is bothered that their country is being bombed, but Syria is being bombed every day by Bashar Assad, and by Israel,” Free Syrian Army media and political coordinator Louay Meqdad told Al-Jazeera.
“We wonder why there are so many missiles and military installations around Damascus when they should be close to the cease-fire line with Israel on the Golan Heights.
For us, the operations that we carry out every day are not related to Israeli attacks or anything else, and we will continue to fight until the fall of Assad,” he said.
Israeli analysts said the fighters might even be happy about the airstrikes, if they were indeed carried out by Israel.
“They may be happy, not that they’ll say that out loud,” Brig. Gen. (ret) Shlomo Brom of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv said.
However, Brom said it is possible that Hezbollah, which was seen as the target of the strike, could react. Press reports said Israel targeted a convoy of long-range missiles that are known for their accuracy, that were being sent to Hezbollah from Iran.
“So far, there is no Hezbollah reaction, and it is likely that this time, there will be no reaction,” Brom said. “At the same time, the frequency of this kind of attack will cause a cumulative effect. Hezbollah may lose their patience and react. It’s difficult to know what may be the breaking point.” Brom points to the bombing of a tour bus in Bulgaria last July that killed five Israelis. Two men with ties to Hezbollah were arrested, and Bulgarian officials said Hezbollah financed the attack.
Israel ordered its embassies and consulates around the world to be on high alert after the attacks in Syria.
