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Israeli Forces on High Alert for Fear of Hezbollah Attack
Israeli forces Thursday were on high alert on the northern border with Lebanon to brace for any possible attack by the Lebanese Islamic resistance group Hezbollah, said military sources.
The sources said that the army was "taking precautionary measures due to the general situation" and the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Reports here said that the Israeli security cabinet, which met overnight Wednesday to discuss the army's withdrawal from the West Bank town of Beit Jalla, was also briefed on Hezbollah's efforts to carry out a major attack against Israel.
Following the Israel's assassination of Abu Ali Mustafa, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, on Monday, Israeli security sources said that Islamic organizations, including Hezbollah, would try to carry out revenge attacks against Israel.
Since Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops from south Lebanon on May 24, last year, Hezbollah, the main resistance force to force Israel to end its occupation of south Lebanon, has launched sporadic attacks against Israeli forces on the disputed area of Shebaa Farms at the foot of Golan Heights.
Hezbollah, or Party of God, says the Shebaa Farms area is part of the Lebanese territory while Israel insists that it seized the land from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and the issue will be solved in its negotiations with Syria.
Israel responded harshly to every Hezbollah attacks and twice struck Syrian targets in Lebanon while holding Syria, the main power broker of Hezbollah, for the radical group's actions.
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