JERUSALEM: Israel accused Hezbollah on Monday of orchestrating shelling across the Golan Heights frontier in order to stoke Israeli-Syrian fighting, and called on Syrian President Bashar Assad and his big-power ally Russia to curb the Lebanese guerrillas.
Twice last week, mortar rounds or rockets launched from Syria hit areas of the Golan that Israel has held since the 1967 Middle East war, causing no casualties but drawing retaliatory artillery fire against Syrian army posts.
Israel has largely stayed out of the six-year civil war in the neighboring enemy state but has threatened to step up strikes if attacked from the Golan or to prevent Assad’s Iranian and Hezbollah reinforcements setting up Syrian garrisons.
Addressing his parliamentary faction, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the Golan shelling was carried out by a Syrian cell on Hezbollah’s orders, without Damascus having been informed.
He did not elaborate on the source of the information.
“There was a personal instruction by (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah to compartmentalize Assad and his regime from the execution of this shooting ... with the goal of dragging us into the Syrian mire,” Lieberman said in the televised remarks.
“Therefore I call here both on the Assad regime ... and also on the Russian forces that are present there, to restrain Hezbollah. And this is another example of why they should be kicked out of Syria as fast as possible.”
In what appeared to be a reference to Israel’s efforts to coordinate its actions in Syria with Moscow, Lieberman said Russian military commanders in Syria “have received all the (information) that they need on this matter.”
Syria’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, after projectiles fired from Syria drew an Israeli attack on three Syrian artillery guns, that Israeli strikes would have “grave consequences.”
Israel has also carried out targeted air strikes in Syria during the civil war, alarmed by the expanding influence of Iran. The Israeli air force says it has struck arms convoys of the Syrian military and Hezbollah nearly 100 times in recent years. Israel and Hezbollah last fought a war in 2006.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of Golan shelling to spark war with Syria
Israel accuses Hezbollah of Golan shelling to spark war with Syria
Israel first responders say woman killed after Iran missile attack in Tel Aviv area
- AFPTV images showed a street flanked by residential buildings whose facades were destroyed by blasts, as well as burnt out cars
TEL AVIV: Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom said on Saturday that a woman was killed in the Tel Aviv area after Iran fired a barrage of missiles toward Israel.
“Paramedics have confirmed the death of a woman in her 40s with severe injuries,” MDA said.
Earlier on Saturday, MDA said that a woman in a critical condition was among 21 people injured in the Iranian strikes.
AFP journalists and Israeli television channels reported first responders and firemen deployed in several parts of Tel Aviv, and physical damage to the city.
AFPTV images showed a street flanked by residential buildings whose facades were destroyed by blasts, as well as burnt out cars.
Firemen extinguished the flames from fires that broke out in the surrounding area while first rescuers evacuated the injured.
Throughout the evening, AFP journalists reported loud blasts in the Tel Aviv area, Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, as Israel’s aerial defense system shot down barrages of missiles.
The military said Saturday evening that “several points of impact” were reported throughout Israel.
Speaking from one point of impact, Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said that first responders were going from building to building to check for damages and more injuries.
