Israel Media Warn of Hizbullah Reaction to Syria Air Strike
Israeli media on Friday warned that an alleged air strike on a convoy carrying arms from Syria to Hizbullah could set off a chain reaction, and reported troops on high alert in the country's north.
There was still no official Israeli comment on Syrian claims that Israeli warplanes bombed a military site near Damascus on Wednesday or on separate reports that its aircraft struck a weapons convoy along the Syria-Lebanon border.
Newspapers, however, seemed to have little doubt on what had happened or the likely consequences.
"Complete restraint over the long term to Israel's actions could be considered weakness by Hizbullah, so we should expect some form of response, even if not immediately and not necessarily a broad rocket and missile attack on Israel," defense commentator Amos Harel wrote in the left-leaning Haaretz daily.
"The Hizbullah convoy, which according to foreign reports was attacked from the air while traveling from Syria to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, laden with explosives, will not be the last," Nahum Barnea wrote in Yediot Aharonot.
"It would seem, from a pessimistic view, that we are on the way to a military confrontation on at least one of the two northern fronts," he added, referring to Israel's borders with Syrian and Lebanon.
The top-selling paper's front page said that the army's northern command had declared a state of high alert, but the military spokesman's office refused to confirm or deny this when asked by Agence France Presse.
The Syrian army said an Israeli strike early on Wednesday targeted a "scientific research center" near Damascus, with local residents telling AFP it was a non-conventional weapons research center.
Israel had frequently warned that if Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons fell into the Hizbullah hands, this would be a casus belli.
But the Jewish state has also raised the alarm over long-range Scud missiles or other advanced weaponry, such as anti-aircraft systems and surface-to-surface missiles, being transferred to Hizbullah.
"Efforts to transfer advanced weaponry to Hizbullah will continue, and will even accelerate as President Bashar Assad's regime continues to erode," wrote Israel Hayom, a free sheet considered close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"On the assumption that Israel will know of this and will take action in the future, domestic pressure will mount in Syria and in Lebanon to respond, and this is liable to set the northern border on fire at any moment," it added.
Damascus has threatened to retaliate for the reported Israeli raid, and Syria's close ally Iran warned the attack would have "grave consequences."
In Israel, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on Israeli media reports that its embassies were instructed to be alert of threats after Syria's warnings as Syrian-allied Hizbullah has been accused of staging deadly attacks against Israelis abroad in past years.
Israel had positioned an additional "Iron Dome" rocket defense system in northern Israel on Thursday, security officials said, after moving another to the northern city of Haifa earlier this week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the battery's placement with reporters.
Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli military spokesman, said the military's home front command has not raised its alert level.
Source: Agence France Presse, Associated Press
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