IDF reinforces Lebanon border after Hezbollah threat

Army takes measures after the terror group threatens retaliation for the death of one of its fighters in an alleged Israeli strike in Syria.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

The IDF said Thursday it was sending additional troops to reinforce the northern border with Lebanon after the Hezbollah terror group threatened retaliation after one of its fighters was killed in Syria in an alleged Israeli air attack.

“In accordance with the situational assessment that was held in the IDF, it was decided to add pinpoint reinforcements of infantry troops to the Northern Command,” the IDF said in a tweet.

Israel decided to boost its forces on the confrontation line with Hezbollah after an attack earlier this week near Damascus International Airport killed killed five combatants including a fighter from the Iran-backed terror group that is fighting on behalf of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad. The airstrike was widely attributed to Israel, AP reported.

The terror group has in the past retaliated for Israeli strikes that killed its fighters. Last September, after two of its fighters were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, Hezbollah fired two anti-tank missiles that struck IDF vehicles just inside the Lebanese border, but no Israelis were injured.

Last week, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said Hezbollah would be mistaken to try and take on Israel in a military conflict during a special briefing in Dubai.

“I think it would be a great mistake for Hezbollah to try to carry out operations against Israel. I can’t see that having a good ending,” McKenzie said.

Armed, trained and funded by Iran, leaders of the Shiite terror group have for years repeated their threats to attack Israel with their massive rocket arsenal, bragging it now has missiles that can hit anywhere in Israel.

In the 2006 war Hezbollah started with the IDF, the terrorists fired some 4,000 rockets at Israeli targets, acknowledging that they specifically attacked civilian targets that left 44 Israeli civilians dead and almost 1,400 wounded.

Before resigning last year, former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri criticized Hezbollah saying, “Hezbollah is not a Lebanese problem only. It’s a regional problem.”

The terror group is widely believe to have played a key role in the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father, Afic, who at the time was prime minister of Lebanon and a staunch opponent of Syria’s military occupation of Lebanon.