Israeli security bodies announced upon the conclusion of official investigations that Lebanon’s Hezbollah stands behind the Megiddo attack.
A Lebanese man, who sneaked through the borders, carried out the attack in the north of the country on March 13.
The youth crossed the border through a ladder that allowed him to jump and with the support of the monitoring forces Hezbollah deploys along the border, Army Radio reported.
It added that this operation is part of 250 tension incidents between Israel, the Lebanese army, and Hezbollah since the beginning of the current year.
Tel Aviv doesn’t rule out the possibility of a war soon, yet the security establishment there said that despite the mounting boldness of “Hezbollah” and the increasing tension incidents between Hezbollah and the Lebanese army, there is no interest in Israel or Hezbollah in a war currently.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Thursday that Israel would likely no longer see limited conflicts on single fronts, but rather would have to face a multi-front escalation in the near future.
“This is the end of the era of limited conflicts,” Gallant told reporters in a briefing. “We are facing a new security era in which there may be a real threat to all arenas at the same time.”
“We operated for years under the assumption that limited conflicts could be managed, but that is a phenomenon that is disappearing. Today, there is a noticeable phenomenon of the convergence of the arenas,” Gallant said.
“Iran is the driving force in the convergence of the arenas. It transfers resources, ideology, knowledge, and training to its proxies,” Gallant added.
“The increasing dependence [of the proxies] on Iran leads them to step over the boundaries and become more brazen,” he said.
According to Gallant, Iran funds Hezbollah in Lebanon with $700 million a year, as well as “knowledge and strategic weaponry”.
Hamas is funded by Iran with $100 million annually, with additional funding worth tens of millions of dollars going to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Gallant said.
Further, hundreds of millions of dollars are sent to Iranian-backed militias each year in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
Speaking on the Iranian nuclear program, Gallant said, “Iran is closer than ever to reaching military nuclear capability.”
“In the face of this threat, we must act in one of two ways: military action or a credible military threat,” he said.
“Iran feels increasing self-confidence. In its view, the West is deterred and lacks effective tools against it,” Gallant said. “While Israel is busy dealing with Iran’s proxies, Iran is getting stronger economically and militarily and this gives it room for action. This is something that should keep the whole world, and Israel, awake at night.”
Gallant said: “We continue to systematically damage Iranian assets and capabilities in the region.”
“We will not allow Iran to establish an Iranian army in Syria, we will not allow the Golan Heights to become Lebanon, and we will not allow Syrian territory to be a springboard for advanced weapons heading to Lebanon.”
“We are working on all this at a large scale. Since I took office, in the first quarter of 2023 we doubled the rate of attacks in Syria.”
“The weakening of the Palestinian Authority and the [PA security forces] creates significant security decisions for us. In places where the Palestinian Authority does not operate, this forces us to carry out longer and more intense operations,” he added.
