Israel on High Alert in the North Amid Fears of Rocket Attacks from Lebanon
The Israeli army has reportedly gone on high alert in the north for fears that Palestinian factions backed by Hizbullah would launch rockets to avenge the offensive on the Gaza Strip and open a new front with Israel.
The Israeli daily Jerusalem Post quoted defense sources as saying that time seemed ripe for Palestinian factions to prove allegiance to Hamas and attack Israel from south Lebanon.
Israeli media also quoted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert”s spokesman Mark Regev as saying the Jewish state was worried about the threat posed by Hizbullah on Israel”s northern frontier.
"Yes," Regev said, responding to a question about the possibility of an attack. "We”re watching the northern border very closely."
U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops have also stepped up patrols along the border with Israel after rockets were discovered in the south and following the Jewish state”s massive military operation in Gaza.
The same defense sources told The Jerusalem Post that Israel feared a possible attack on Israel as the anniversary of Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniye”s assassination nears.
They said the Lebanese Shiite group, which still seeks to avenge Mughniyeh”s murder in a Damascus car bombing last February, will take advantage of the situation and attack Israel while it is busy on the Gaza front.
The mayor of an Israeli city in the north told the Post it would be the "mistake of a lifetime" for Hizbullah and Lebanon to begin any sort of confrontation with Israel now.
"I have it from very senior military sources that the policy is, in the event a missile is fired, to raze to the ground the village from which it was fired. So if they want to reduce Lebanon to piles of rubble (then they should attack)," Ma”alot-Tarshiha”s Mayor, Shlomo Buhbut, said.