Hezbollah keep silent about Israeli attack at Syrian-Lebanese border

Source: YNet

Apart from the reported Isareli attack at depots belonging to Hezbollah at the Lebanese -Syrian border, Israeli papers reported that Israeli troops on Sunday killed four men who tried to plant a bomb along the border between Syria and the Syrian Golan Heights annexed by Israel.

Hezbollah refused to comment Sunday on reports that Israel targeted its interests on the Syria-Lebanon border over the weekend.News outlets reported Saturday that Israeli fighter jets hit Syrian and Hezbollah targets on the Syria-Lebanon border overnight Friday. When contacted by The Daily Star, a Hezbollah spokesman refused to confirm or deny the reports.
According to sources quoted by Al-Jazeera, the attack in the Syrian region of Qalamoun targeted the 155th and 65th Brigades of the Syrian Army, which deal with strategic weapons and long-range missiles. The sources reported several explosions in the Syrian towns of Al-Qutayfa, Yabroud and Qara on the outskirts of Damascus.
Al-Arabiya news channel reported that the attack targeted Syrian weapons depots, and that Wednesday Israel allegedly attacked two weapons convoys, reportedly killing one person.
Sources confirmed to Lebanese news site Elnashra Saturday that Israel had attacked Syrian posts near Qara.
The Israeli Army declined to respond to the reports. Syrian regime-affiliated media and Hezbollah-affiliated media have not reported the attack so far.
Sources told Israel’s Ynet that the Israeli air force has carried out several raids against targets in Syria, including depots storing weapons meant for Hezbollah, since the conflict there started four years ago.

Israel kills seven in attack on Hezbollah in Syria, including Iranian general and son of Imad Mughniyeh

Jihad Mughniyeh with in the background his father Imad, who was killed by Israel in 2008. Jihad Mughniyyeh had been appointed Hezbollah's commander in the Quneitra area in Syria only a few months ago.

Updated. An Israeli helicopter strike in Syria killed six members of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement including the son of group's late military leader Imad Mughniyeh, an Iranian general and an important military leader of Hezbollah, sources close to Hezbollah said.  A source close to Hezbollah told AFP the killed military leader was Mohammed Issa also known as “Abu Issa,” a senior commander responsible for Hezbollah operations in Syria and Iraq. Iran confirmed Monday that a general of its elite Revolutionary Guards died in the strike.
"General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi and a number of fighters and Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah) forces were attacked by the Zionist regime's helicopters," a statement on the Guards' website said.
The four other Hezbollah casualties were identified as: “Sayyed Abbas” Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi; “Kazem” Mohammed Ali Hassan Abu al-Hassan; “Daniel” Ghazi Ali Dawi; “Ihab” Ali Hassan Ibrahim." Iran did not confirm or deny earlier reports that said six Iranians had been killed in the airstrike.

Israel shoots two Hezbollah fighters

Israeli troops shot two Hezbollah fighters who tried to plant a bomb near the fence between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-held territory on Wednesday, the Israeli army said.
An army spokeswoman said Israeli intelligence had identified the men as members of Hezbollah. She had no immediate word on their condition.
Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in July-August 2006. Both sides have largely avoided direct confrontation since then. Last week, however, Hezbollah accused Israel of bombing one of its bases near the Lebanon-Syria border and threatened to retaliate. Israel did not confirm carrying out the air strike, in keeping with its official silence on at least three such attacks in the last year targeting suspected Hezbollah-bound weapons convoys from Syria. It said it would hold Beirut responsible for any Hezbollah reprisals from Lebanese turf.

Hezbollah vows to retaliate for Israeli strike on Nabi Sheet

Hezbollah has announced that it will respond to the recent Israeli attack and denies that anyone was killed, the Lebanese daily Daily Syar reports. Earlier the paper reported that fFour members of Hezbollah were killed in the Israeli airstrike, which targeted a missile shipment from Syria to the Hezbollah post at the Syrian bordere, Nabi Sheet.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources told The Daily Star that the airstrike, which took place late Monday evening, was aimed at two trucks, one transferring missiles and the other carrying a missile launcher. The sources said the trucks were heading to Hezbollah’s missile warehouses in Lebanon.
They said the Israeli attack killed four Hezbollah members, but gave no further information.
The Hezbollah affiliated television station Al-Manar downplayed the event.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday the Jewish state was doing everything needed to protect the country. “We are doing everything that is necessary to defend the security of Israel,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying by AFP.
A security source told The Daily Star Monday that Israeli warplanes had launched four rockets targeting a shipment of “qualitative” weapons in the border area of Janta near the eastern village of Nabi Sheet. Hezbollah has military training camps and important military posts in Nabi Sheet that were established not long after the party was formed in 1982.

Nasrallah blames Israel for Hariri murder and promises to present evidence on Monday

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday accused Israel of the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri  and said he would  present evidence to that effect at a news conference next Monday. The promise to come with such evidence was the most important remark during his prescheduled speech, which was broadcasted via tv-screens in South-Beirut.

The speech was meant to mark the fourth anniversary of the 2006 war in Lebanon which ended on 14 August, and was held somewhat earlier because of the beginning of Ramadan next week.

Nasrallah's remarks about the killing of Hariri had to do with  the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) about the 2005 murder of Hariri, which is going to deliver its verdict soon. Nasrallah  said in a spress conference in July that he is aware of the fact that the STL will indict members of Hizbullah. According to Nasrallah this is unacceptable and he pointed at the fact that there are serious doubts about the trustworthiness of several witnesses. Also he made the point that the recent arrests of  several spies for Israel who were working int he telecom sector (which took place in the franmework of a wave of the dtection of more than 70 spy cases) casts serious doubts on the outcome of the STL, as telecom data played an important role in its findings. According to him the STL in this way was an instrument of Israel.
The probability that Hizbullah will be indicted in the Hariri case caused a new wave of tension in Lebabon. It was for that reason that king Abdallah of Saudi-Arabia together with president Assad of Syria payed  a  visit to Lebanon last weekend. The entente between the two leaders, of which the Saudi king is an ally of the Lebanese prime minister Hariri jr and the Syrian president has strong ties with Hizbullah, was an exercise to calm the emotions in Beirut, to save the cabinet of which Hizbullah is a member, and to block the way for a new outburst of armd onflict like in 2008. An exercise, by the way, that seems largely to have worked.
In his speech. Nasrallah again raised the point that the witnesses in the STL should be scrutinized a second time. But the main theme of his speech on this day of clashes between the Lebanese and Israeli armies was about the relations between the army and the 'resistance'.

Nasrallah praised the Lebanese army warmly for its efforts, but made clear that Hizbullah fighters had been ordered to stay out of the fighting. He told his audience that if Hizbollah would have participated some could have thought that it was an instument in the hands of president Assad who on Sunday warned for the possiblity of a new war, or that it  wanted to outshine the Lebanese army, or distract the attention from accusations in the STL. 'We were ready to fight and defend … but the wisdom, interest and loyalty meant that the resistance put itself at the disposal of the army which was dealing with the confrontation,” Nasrallah said. 'We informed the president that we will take no action and similarly informed the prime minister and the speaker,” he added.

Nasrallah made clear, however, that Hizbullah is ready for  future cooperation with the army to protect the country against Israeli threats. 'The army protects the resistance and the resistance protects the army; this is the formula that protects Lebanon,' Nasrallah said.

Israel and Lebanon clash at border, three Lebanese and one Israeli killed

According to Hezbollah's Al-Manar tv one Israeli lieutenant colonel was killed and two Israeli soldiers were wounded in todays's clashes. For hours there was no Israeli confirmation. However,  AFP published this photo of a helicopter evacuating casualties.  

Is this the opening act of a new round of fighting? Israeli and Lebanese troops exchanged fire on Tuesday on the Israel-Lebanon border, Reuters reported. Two Lebanese soldiers were killed, as well as Assaf Abou Rahhal, a Lebanese journalist with the newspaper Al-Akhbar. Hezbollah's tv Al-Manar reported that one its journalists, Ali Cheaib, was injured. Al-Manar tv also reported that an Israeli lieutenant colonel got killed as well, and others wounded. Hours later the Israeli army confirmed the death of the lieutenant colonel Dov Harari (45), while a reserve captain was seriously wounded.  

According to Israeli sources the clashes started when Israeli army engineers came under fire from Lebanese soldiers while working along the frontier. The troops then shot back, according to Israel.  Lebanse security sources said that it started when the Israelis wanted to cut down a tree on Lebanons side of the border.  The Lebanese army fired warning shots with light weapons and the Israelis answered by shelling the Lebanese border village of Adaysseh, thereby wounding one Lebanese soldier and one civilian. Lateron also rockets were fired from an Israeli helicopter that overflew the village, thereby killing two soldiers and the journalist, while four others were wounded and military vehicles were destroyed.

 Photo Reuters

This picture lateron emerged which clearly shows that the Israelis were working on the Lebanese side of the border. The question is: Why? The Lebanese army at a press conference, covered by Patrcik Galey of the Daily Star, stated that the Israelis were working over the 'blue line' around Adaysseh and ignored attempts of Unifil to stop them, as well as warning shots the Lebanese army fired.

Israëls minister of Defense Ehud Barak later in the day in a declaration said that Israël is not going to tolerate attacks on its patrols within its borders. General Gadi Eizenkott, the commander of Israels northern sector, called it an 'ambush on an IDF unit operating inside Israeli territory'. It is noteworthy that there is a differnce between what is called the 'technical border' (the fence) and what is called 'the blue line' (a demarcation of  the actual border executed by the UN in 2000). So Israel may have been operating on its side of the blue line, but that still does not explain why it did so, in spite of  the fact that both Lebanon and Unifil deny Israeli claims that it coordinated the trimming in advance. Patrick Galey of the Daily Star specifically asked Unifil about this Israeli claim and got the aswer that Unifil was unaware of it. Even more telling was Ynet which revealed, quoting Al-Jazeera, that Israel two days earlier tried to coordinate the bush trimming operation with Lebanon, only to be met with a refusal to do so..
The more the story continues, the more it becomes apparent who's to blame for this event.

Update wednesday 4-8-10: Unifil today ruled that the tree Israel wanted to cut was on the Israeli side of the blue line. Dutch public radio, known for its near total lack of a critical approach towards Israel,  repeated this news several times, as if this exonerated Israel from all culpability. The radio thereby left out that Lebanon disputes the tracé of the blue line at this spot, 'as Israel does at others'. (Beirut said this in a declaration).
It remains an open question why not too many western media posed questions like whether Israel shouldn't have tried harder to coordinate its trimming operation with the Lebanese. The way it acted had all the characteristics of a provocation. Is it too far fetched to suspect that Tel Aviv wanted to test the Lebanese reaction? More specifically that of Hezbollah? (for this reaction see my post on Nasrallah's speech, held the same day).
 In any case the way the newspaper Haaretz brings the news today as if Israel was completely in its right,  seems to miss the point. Israel in the meantime, decided to return to the spot on Wednesday in order to finish the tree cutting job, thereby demonstrating for the xth time its total lack of respect for its neighbours.

Update 2 wednesday 4-8-10: Patrick Galey again, on twitter:  ''1) Just been leaked an internal British embassy memo: IDF informed UNIFIL of needing 2 cross beyond the technical fence 2 cut down bushes...
2) UNIFIL had relayed the message to the LAF. The LAF said they needed 24 hours notice before allowing the IDF to cross... 3) the IDF chose to cross anyway and were spotted by LAF patrol. Hence the incident." 

Nasrallah's warning to Israel

iThe Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 after three days of Israeli bombardments

 This was still due om this blog: the speech that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah held, on Tuesday February 16th, at a meeting to commemorate the Hibollah leaders Sayyed Abbas Musawi and Raghib Harb who in the past have been killed by the Israëli's, as well as Hezbollah's military leader Imad Mughnieh, who was killed two years ago by a car bomb in Damascus - supposedy also planted by the Israeli's. Nasrallah unveiled what appears to be a 'tit for tat' strategy in case Israël would think of attacking Lebanon again, like in 2006.
Nasrallah's speech wasn't an isolated event. It was, as blogger Qifa Nabki rightly points out,  part of a chain of events, starting with a speech by Israeli Defense minister Ehud Barak who on February 1st said something  like that if Israel was not going to make peace with Syria, the result inevitably would be war.
Next in the chain was Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian Foreign minister, who two days later, during a visit of his Spanish counterpart, said:

One day you threaten Gaza, next day you threaten Lebanon, later Iran and now Syria. Don’t test, you Israelis, the determination of Syria. You know that war this time would move to your cities. Come to your senses and choose the road of peace. This path is clear. 

  On day after that also the Israeli Foreign minister, Lieberman, hit the drum of war, warning that Assad, if he choose war, wouldn't only loose the war, but would also be pushed out of power together with his family.

And then came Nasrallah -(in Qifa Nabki's translation): 

“In Lebanon there is infrastructure, and in [occupied] Palestine as well. We have an airport and they have airports. We have power plants and they have very large ones. They have oil refineries and we do too. The infrastructure in Israel is much more advanced than ours. Today, I hereby tell them the following, and they can be assured of it: If you strike Rafiq al-Hariri International Airport in Beirut, we will strike Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. If you strike our ports, we will strike your ports. And if you strike our refineries or our factories we will strike your factories and your refineries. Today, in the memory of Sayyed Abbas and Shaykh Raghib and al-Hajj Imad, I announce and accept this challenge. We, in Lebanon, as a people and a resistance and a national army are capable [of this] because we protect our country and we don’t need anyone in the world to protect Lebanon.”

What it means in practice is unclear to you and me, we can be 100% sure, however, that Nasrallah's words are carefully studied somewhere in buildings in Tel Aviv. But what's the background? There must have been one. Have there been exchanges behind the scene between Syria and Israel that did not have the desired effect and did not lead to talks? Is Israel - together with the US - exerting pressure on Syria in order that foregoes on its reation with Iran? Something must be there - and all this coincides with the fact that the US is sending William Burns, one of its highest diplomats to Damascus, and just named an ambassador (Robert Ford) after a period of five years during which the post had been vacant.