‘The flames have started to creep up on Nasrallah’

IDF chief says Hezbollah's involvement in Syrian civil war may have grave consequences for its leader

By Adiv Sterman
  • Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
 28 June 2013, 12:33 am
File: Then-IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before a cabinet meeting in November 2012 (Kobi Gideon/GPO/Flash 90)

IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said Thursday that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah may have endangered his position by opting to send thousands of gunmen to fight alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces against the rebels in Syria.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force cadets held at the Hatzerim air force base, Gantz said: “Syria is still bleeding, and in Lebanon the flames have started to creep up on Nasrallah.

“In the face of a changing reality, we must be more prepared than ever,” he told the graduating cadets.

Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria’s civil war has sharpened sectarian divisions throughout the Middle East.

Many Sunni hard-liners have taken the Shiite terror group’s intervention as a declaration of war by Shiites against Sunnis.

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