Tensions high in Israel’s north as IDF expects Hezbollah to strike again

“Complex and tense days are ahead of us,” said the IDF’s spokesman.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Tensions remain high on Israel’s border with Lebanon after a foiled Hezbollah infiltration attempt on Monday. The terror group vows it still plans revenge for the killing of one of its members last week.

Hours after the incident, Hezbollah said its planned retaliation will “surely come.”

“Our response is yet to come – the Zionists must only wait for punishment for the crimes,” it also said, part of a series of threats it made following the attack.

Hezbollah denied the infiltration on Monday ever took place. “Everything that was reported in the Israeli media – is not true. This is an invention,” it said in a statement.

Pro-Hezbollah elements even suggested that Israel had invented the incident to give the terror group the chance to take credit for an operation and announce that it had taken revenge without having to do so.

On Monday afternoon around 3:30 p.m., Israel reported a group of three-to-four Hezbollah terrorists tried to cross the border. According to Israel’s Channel 12, they were spotted by an alert soldier at an IDF outpost – a fresh, 19-year-old female recruit.

IDF reinforcements were quickly called to the area and engaged the Hezbollah forces. Reports on the Lebanon side said the terror cell fired a Kornet anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank, but this has not been independently confirmed.

The IDF then covered the area with smoke projectiles as a screen to prevent Hezbollah from targeting the IDF. One of the projectiles reportedly hit a house in the Shebaa Farms area on the Lebanon side. No injuries were reported.

After the incident, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was “playing with fire.”

“Any attack against us will be met with great strength,” he said.

IDF Spokesman Hedi Zilberman said following the incident, “complex and tense days are ahead of us, we continue to work to defend the sector – IDF forces are ready and willing to continue as needed.”

Hezbollah says it wants revenge for the killing of Ali Kamel Mohsen Jawad in a July 20 airstrike in Damascus attributed to Israel.