Israel struck Hezbollah targets as Russia's Syria envoy 'holds secret meeting in Israel' - By Inna Lazareva - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/12070767/Israel-struck-Hizbollah-targets-as-Russias-Syria-envoy-holds-secret-meeting-in-Israel.html
Israeli jets strike at the Shia group near the Lebanon border, according to Syrian media reports
Israeli warplanes struck Hezbollah targets in a series of at least seven strikes near the Lebanon border on Saturday night, Syrian media has reported.
Hezbollah weapon stockpiles had been targeted, some Arab media outlets said, while others reported that convoys transferring long-range missiles to Hezbollah were hit.
If true, the strikes would be the latest in around 20 reported incidents attributed to Israel in Syria since the start of the war in 2011.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) did not comment on the alleged attacks which were said to have taken place near the mountainous Qalamoun area. But prior to the reports of the strikes, the army issued notice concerning forthcoming "explosions" in the north of the country.
"In the next few hours, explosions will be heard in the Upper Galilee," the IDF statement said, as reported by Israel's Channel 2. "The explosions are routine, were planned ahead of time and are not connected to a security incident."
Lebanon's Shia militia Hezbollah, whose forces are also deployed in Syria, denied the incidents took place. However, just hours after the reports emerged, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah reiterated his threat to attack Israel, warning that such attacks would "inevitably come".
Mr Nasrallah swore revenge on Israel last week, in the wake of the air strikes widely attributed to Israel which killed the group's Lebanese operative Samir Kantar and others in an apartment building on the outskirts of Damascus on December 19.
"Israel has declared in the past that when we will be in need, we will act in Syria against two kinds of targets," former Israeli national security adviser Yaakov Amidror told reporters last week, as the news of the Kantar death emerged. "One: the moving of game-changing weapons systems into the hands of Hezbollah and the other is preparations to attack Israel."
On Sunday, Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Russia's Syria envoy, Alexander Lavrentiev, secretly visited Israel last Thursday, hosted by the incoming head of Mossad, Yossi Cohen.
The visit comes just days after the UN Security Council passed a resolution which sought to draw up a road map to end the nearly five-year-long war in Syria.
According to a senior Israeli official quoted by Haaretz, Israel emphasized the importance of their continued freedom "to thwart terror attacks from over the border in Syria, and preventing advanced weaponry from moving from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon", journalist Barak Ravid wrote.
Israel also reportedly emphasized that any agreement in Syria must ensure that the territory is not used "for direct or indirect attacks on Israel".
"Ongoing consultations are imperative in these times," Jacques Neriah, former deputy head for assessment of the IDF's military intelligence told the Telegraph, commenting on the meeting.
"Clearly there's a lot of co-ordination between Israeli and Russian air forces, and it is succeeding," he said.
"The Russians are very interested to know our intentions vis-� -vis the Syrian regime, and the so-called moderate rebels, whereas we are interested to know to what extent Russians are interested to be there [in Syria]," Mr Neriah said.
Nasrallah: Revenge for Kuntar's death will 'inevitably come' - http://www.timesofisrael.com/nasrallah-revenge-for-kuntars-death-will-inevitably-come/
Week after top Hezbollah commander killed, terror group chief says Israelis 'hiding like rats' at northern border, and 'they should be worried'
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday warned that a retaliation for the assassination of Samir Kuntar last week attributed to Israel will "inevitably come," saying Israelis should be afraid both in the country and along the border.
In a lengthy televised address marking a week since the death of arch terrorist Kuntar, Nasrallah vowed the Lebanon-based terror group would respond to the killing regardless of the "repercussions," and likened Israeli soldiers on the northern border to "rats."
"The retaliation to Samir's assassination will inevitably come," he said, according to a translation by Lebanese news site Naharnet."The Israelis are worried and they should be worried along the border and inside Israel... The Israelis are hiding like rats along the border."
Nasrallah said the response was "now up to the resistance fighters."
"We do not fear any repercussions or threats and we cannot tolerate that the blood of our jihadist fighters and brother be shed anywhere in this world," he added.
Nasrallah also appeared to corroborate claims by Israel that Hezbollah was operating on the Syrian Golan Heights.
"When the activities of the resistance started near the Golan, Israel grew very anxious, and it started retaliating in a disproportionate manner to any shelling or gunfire on the border, even if it did not cause casualties," he said.
The Hezbollah leader also praised the spate of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis since October, and hailed Kuntar, who served nearly three decades in an Israeli prison for his part in the brutal 1979 murders of a Nahariya family.
"As we commemorate Kuntar, we must revive the spirit of sacrifice, because this is a key condition for the rise of the people, the persistence of resistance and the creation of the future," he said. "After he was freed from prison, Samir could have lived a normal life among his family and friends, and he could have stayed in the axis of resistance without getting involved militarily, but he refused to do so."
With regard to the Palestinians, Nasrallah said they should not wait for Saudi-style intervention like in Yemen or an "Islamic military alliance for combating terrorism."
He also said that if "all efforts in Syria, Iraq and other countries where conflicts are taking place were joined together, the Israeli entity would be wiped out," according to Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel.
On Saturday night, Syrian media reported that Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in the Qalamoun area of Syria in a series of at least seven airstrikes. Hezbollah denied the reports.
The reported strikes came less than a week after Hezbollah-allied terrorist Kuntar was killed in an explosion in his Damascus home, which has been attributed to Israel. Kuntar's death was followed within hours by rocket strikes from Lebanon on the northern Israeli city of Nahariya.
Israel has warned Hezbollah not to respond to Kuntar's death. Foreign officials also warned the Lebanon-based terror group that seeking retaliation for Kuntar's killing could prompt a crushing Israeli response.
Hezbollah said Kuntar was killed along with eight others in an overnight Saturday airstrike on a residential building in Jaramana, on the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus.
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