JERUSALEM—Israel has warned Hezbollah that it will hold the Lebanese militia responsible for any attack abroad on Israeli institutions or citizens that might be carried out in retaliation for the helicopter attack last week that took the lives of 12 Hezbollah and Iranian military personnel in Syria, including an Iranian general.
Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack.
Hezbollah generally attempts to avoid launching retaliatory actions against Israel from Lebanese territory to forestall an Israeli counter-blow into Lebanon. In 1992, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was blown up in retaliation for the assassination of Hezbollah's leader, and two years later the Jewish community center in the Argentinian capital was also destroyed by a car bomb. Close to 120 persons were killed in the two attacks, which Israel attributed to Hezbollah and Iranian operatives.
The Arabic-language newspaper, Al-Hayat, reported the current Israeli warning over the weekend, citing Western diplomatic sources. "Israel would hold Hezbollah responsible for any attack against its institutions and nationals, including areas known to be frequented by Israelis in far-off places around the globe," according to the report.
Lebanese parliamentarians in recent days have called on Hezbollah to avoid striking at Israel from Lebanese territory for fear of Israel lashing back. In Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah, destruction in Lebanon was extensive. The Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Anbaa, said there was rising apprehension in Lebanon of this happening again. It quoted a Lebanese minister, Muhammad Fneish, as saying that the militia will doubtless take Lebanon’s national interest into account before doing anything. "Hezbollah doesn’t just have courage but it also has a high degree of wisdom," he said.
In the wake of the assassination in 2008 of Hezbollah’s military chief, Imad Mughniyeh, in Damascus—an act Hezbollah attributed to the Mossad—there were numerous failed attempts to strike back at Israeli targets on several continents. These included car bombs near Israeli embassies and bombs under an Israeli diplomat's car in Tiblisi, Georgia. In 2012, a bomb on a tourist bus in Bulgaria succeeded in killing five Israelis and the local driver.
The deputy head of Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said over the weekend that the killing of the 12 last week on Syrian soil was an Israeli effort to "change the rules" in the ongoing confrontations between his organization and Israel. Officials in Jerusalem say it was Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons who were attempting to change the rules by preparing to open a new front on Syrian soil opposite the Golan Heights.
The dead included Mughniyeh’s 25-year-old son, Jihad, said by Israel to have been appointed by Hezbollah to command the new front. Tehran has warned Israel of "crushing" reprisal for the blow that cost the lives of a veteran general and five other members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The party of 12 was reconnoitering the border area in two SUVs, which were destroyed by two helicopter-borne rockets.