Hezbollah weapons transport destroyed in airstrike, Israel refrains from commenting
A vehicle of Hezbollah terrorists transporting weapons from Syria to Lebanon was destroyed in an air strike on Thursday.
The Al Jazeera network said a number of Hezbollah terrorists were killed in the strike, but some Arab media reported that the occupants, including senior Hezbollah officials Israel had been targeting, fled before it was hit.
No one has taken credit for the strike including Israel, and Hezbollah has yet to comment. But just last week Israel reported that Hezbollah was building its presence in southern Syria and that it would hold Syria responsible for any hostile actions taken on its soil against the Jewish state.
Hezbollah, the terror group backed by Iran, is already entrenched in Lebanon. Last week, the Israel Defense Forces released footage showing the Syrian army helping Hezbollah establish a presence on its border across from Israel on the Golan Heights.
“Hezbollah’s presence in Syria in general and in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights in particular aims to create a terrorist infrastructure against the State of Israel with the cooperation and care of the Syrian regime,” IDF Arabic language spokesperson Avichay Adraee wrote on Twitter. He added that Israel “will not tolerate this entrenchment!”“We see you. Consider this a warning. We won’t allow Hezbollah to entrench itself militarily in Syria,” the IDF said.
Meanwhile on the border with Lebanon, Israeli troops had a tense standoff with Lebanese soldiers broken by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Tuesday. Photos show both sides facing off with rifles drawn.
“Tension increased. Our troops were in the middle with the aim of preventing misunderstandings and decreasing tension,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told the Times of Israel. “Shortly after the situation went back to normal.”
The IDF did not comment. Israel’s borders have been quiet in recent weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.
Many Lebanese residents blame Hezbollah for contributing to the coronavirus spread there by continuing to use border crossings, which are officially closed, to smuggle money and weapons into Lebanon.
