Israeli Officials: Hizbullah Trying to Intimidate UNIFIL over Monitoring Activities

Israeli defense officials have accused Hizbullah of involvement in the latest roadside bombing on French peacekeepers serving with UNIFIL near the southern city of Tyre, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The newspaper said the defense officials believe French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe is right in accusing Hizbullah of having a hand in the bombing that left five troops injured.

Juppe has said he believes Damascus probably ordered the attack and that its ally Hizbullah assisted in carrying it out.

Haaretz quoted the defense officials as saying that the Shiite group “is trying to intimidate UNIFIL, particularly the French troops … so that they won’t monitor Hizbullah’s activities in southern Lebanon too closely.”

“The attacks are apparently carried out by proxies, smaller organizations, so that they cannot be linked directly to Hizbullah,” they said.

The Israeli officials are probing possible connections between the Shiite party and the two recent firings of Katyusha rockets, Haaretz said.

These developments may indicate a change in Hizbullah’s policy and may be linked to the erosion of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, it added.

“Hizbullah is in a turbulent state,” one of the Israeli defense officials said. “On the one hand, Assad’s regime faces collapse; on the other, Iran has been forced to cut back its financial aid to the organization due to the international sanctions that Tehran faces.

“Under such circumstances, Hizbullah is liable to make a mistake and pursue courses of action that would further complicate its situation.”