Israel Prepares For Rocket Attacks From Lebanon
By George Whitten, Jerusalem Bureau Chief
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL (Worthy News) — As Israel continued its ground assault into the Gaza Strip Monday, January 5, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) were on high alert along the country’s northern border amid concerns the militant Hezbollah group would fire rockets from Lebanon in revenge for the offensive.
Top level Iranian and Hezbollah leaders reportedly met in Syria this weekend and reached an agreement under which Hezbollah would launch rockets into Israel if the IDF launched a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip.
“We hope the northern border will remain quiet,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in remarks monitored by Worthy News. “But we are ready for any development.”
Last week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah apparently ordered his troops to raise their alert level ahead of a potential military campaign with Israel and described people dying for this cause as “martyrs of humanity.”
He said,”We as a nation are faced with a central goal [that] we ought to aim for in the current crisis: .. stopping the Zionist attack on Gaza and not allowing this attack to achieve any of its goals, purposes or objectives, [so that] the victory will be for Gaza despite the great sacrifices,” according to a Middle East Media Research Institute report.
FIGHTING GOVERNMENTS
“Every state should work toward this goal, not only the citizens of Gaza,” he reportedly added. “People whose governments have not taken any action at all should force their governments to act. It is not at all justifiable for people to say, ‘We cannot move because of [our] repressive regimes.’ We ought to [take to] the streets in the Arab and Islamic world, raise our voice to the world and put pressure on our governments.” He apparently added that, “Even if they shoot us, it is still a must. Whoever falls martyr in these protests is a martyr [for] humanity…”
The remarks came amid concern in Israel tensions would be further fuelled by the upcoming first anniversary of the assassination of one-time Hezbollah security chief – Imad Mughniyeh.
Mughniyeh was indicted in the United States over the 1985 hijacking of a Trans World Airlines airplane. in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. At the time of his death, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had a $5 million bounty on his head. He was killed in a Damascus car bombing last February.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the killing, but Israeli officials denied involvement.