Netanyahu warns Hezbollah against new war front

AFP | Jerusalem, Undefined

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Hezbolltah will make “the mistake of its life” if it starts a war with Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday, as tensions continue to surge on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Netanyahu visited troops on the Lebanese border in northern Israel where mounting artillery exchanges have heightened fears of a new war front opening as Israel battles Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli defence ministry yesterday ordered 14 additional communities to join dozens that have already been evacuated from the border area.

In the event of scaled up hostilities, Netanyahu said Hezbollah “will make the mistake of its life.

We will strike it with a force it cannot even imagine, and the significance for it and the state of Lebanon will be devastating.”

The Israeli army yesterday said its forces “identified a terrorist cell attempting to launch anti-tank missiles toward the Avivim area along the border with Lebanon”.

“Soldiers struck the cell before it was able to carry out the attack,” it said. The army also said an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli tank “in the area of Har Dov”, in the disputed Shebaa Farms border district. The tank returned fire, the army added, reporting no damage or casualties on the Israeli side.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Israeli aircraft overflew south Lebanon on Sunday and Israel had bombed various sites along the border.

Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus warned that Hezbollah “is dragging Lebanon into a war that it will gain nothing from, but stands to lose a lot.

“Hezbollah is playing a very, very dangerous game.

They ’re escalating the situation. We see more and more attacks every day,” he continued. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Sunday that diplomatic efforts were seeking to “stop Israeli attacks on Lebanon” and prevent the Gaza conflict from growing.