EU plays down rocket fire on Israel from Lebanon
The Czech EU presidency on Thursday downplayed the rocket fire on Israel from Lebanon, saying Hezbollah "would be scared" to start real war and was just showing that it was still around.
"There were so few rockets that I have the impression that Hezbollah tried to demonstrate they”re still existing, but for the moment they would be scared to start a real war with Israel," said Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country holds the EU”s rotating presidency.
While not blaming Hezbollah openly, Schwarzenberg, speaking to reporters in Prague, made the link between the Shiite Hezbollah militia and the Hamas militants who have been launching rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip. "Hamas and Hezbollah have the same influence. They are backed by the same powers, so there is a certain interdependency," he said.
Rockets slammed into northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday, with Hezbollah denying responsibility for the attack that sowed panic on both sides of the tense border. No group had claimed responsibility for the salvo, which came as Israel pushed on with its 13-day-old offensive on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Officials in Lebanon representing the two main Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah both denied that their movements were behind the firing. The rockets fell a day after Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned that "all possibilities" were open against Israel amid its deadly offensive in Gaza.