Hezbollah plans ‘calculated strike’ on Israel that won’t spark war — report
Sources close to Iran-backed terror group say retaliatory measure for Israeli strike in Syria and alleged Lebanon raids will be limited, unless ‘matters develop’
Hezbollah is planning to launch a “calculated strike” on Israel in response to a series of alleged Israeli raids, but will seek to avoid an all-out war with the Jewish state, sources close to the Lebanese terrorist group told Reuters on Tuesday.
One Hezbollah source said a measure was “being arranged in a way which wouldn’t lead to a war that neither Hezbollah nor Israel wants.”
“The direction now is for a calculated strike, but how matters develop, that’s another thing,” the source added.
Tensions between Hezbollah and Israel have skyrocketed since Saturday night, when two of its members were killed in an Israeli strike in Syria, and drones crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut, in an incident also blamed on Israel. On Monday, Lebanon claimed Israeli drones attacked a Palestinian base in the country’s east.
Israel took credit for the Syria raid, but has not commented on the other strikes. The model of UAV used in the Beirut attack has raised considerable questions about the drones’ provenance, with analysts suggesting they could be Iranian.
Israel said the strike inside Syria had thwarted a plot by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps to launch explosives-laden drones into Israel, overseen by powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who heads the IRGC’s expeditionary Quds Force.
At least five people were killed in the strike, including two Hezbollah members that Israel identified and said were trained in Iran, and an Iranian combatant.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday threatened retaliatory strikes against Israel.
“I say to the Israeli army along the border, from tonight be ready and wait for us,” he said in a televised speech. “Do not rest, do not be reassured, and do not bet for a single moment that Hezbollah will allow… aggression of this kind.”
Nasrallah called the Beirut drones the first such “hostile action” since a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Israel’s military has been gearing up for a possible reprisal attack from Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group that is part of the Lebanese government, deploying extra troops to the northern border and limiting some movement along the frontier.
On Monday, an Israeli military official warned that any Israeli response would be disproportionate, and Israel sent a message to Lebanon via the US that it would not limit its response to Hezbollah but would view all of Lebanon as a legitimate target, according to reports by Israeli news outlets.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon, Nasrallah and the head of the Quds Force to “be careful” with their words and actions.
Netanyahu told a conference in Jerusalem that Nasrallah “knows very well that the State of Israel knows how to defend itself well, and to repay its enemies.”
“I want to say to him and the Lebanese state, which is hosting this organization that aims to destroy us, and I say the same to Qassem Soleimani: Be careful about your words, and even more cautious about your actions.”
Netanyahu went on to suggest that Nasrallah “calm down.”
Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, asking him to use his “influence to prevent a further escalation of tensions between Israel and Lebanon.”
According to Hariri’s office, the Lebanese prime minister told Lavrov that the attack in southern Beirut was “a dangerous act and aggression” and that he’s counting on Russia’s role to “avoid more escalation and tension and to send message to Israel to stop violating Lebanese sovereignty.”
Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported Tuesday that senior US officials were putting pressure on Lebanon to rein in Hezbollah in order to avoid an escalation in violence, and were also attempting to defuse potentially explosive tensions.
According to the paper, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Lebanese officials that Israel “did not intend to change the rules of the game” with the attack on the Iranian drone plot, explaining that the attack that killed Hezbollah personnel in Syria “was necessary to prevent an expected offensive from the Iranian side and that the Israeli forces confirmed that the headquarters was emptied of humans before bombarding it and that it didn’t intend to cause human casualties from Hezbollah’s ranks.”
He also reportedly said of the drone crashes in the Beirut neighborhood of Dahiyeh that “there was no intention to undertake an attack,” blaming the issue on a malfunction.
Agencies and Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
