Hezbollah guerrillas who are bombarding Israel with missiles are being helped by members of Iran’s revolutionary guards, Israel said tonight.
Israel also warned the terror group has Iranian missiles that could hit Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, major Israeli cities that sit up to 124 miles from the Lebanese border.
In almost four days of fighting, Hezbollah has fired longer range rockets that have hit Tiberias – a resort city on the Sea of Galilee, where tradition says Jesus performed some of his best-known miracles – and Israel’s third-largest city, Haifa, both about 25 miles from the border.
In total, Hezbollah has fired more than 350 rockets at Israel since fighting erupted on Wednesday, the army said. But Hezbollah has so far refrained from using the approximately 20 longer-range rockets it has at its disposal, a move that would likely broaden the scope of fighting to include Syria, and possibly even Iran.
“They might attack Tel Aviv with their long-range rockets. This is in the (military’s) assessment,” a senior Israeli intelligence said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. It is unclear why Hezbollah had not yet used the longer-range rockets, he said.
In a meeting of police, rescue and municipal officials in Tel Aviv on Friday, it was decided to increase the readiness of the rescue services due to the possibility that Hezbollah could attack the city, officials said. Ambulance drivers were instructed to be near their vehicles at all times, they added.
Israeli officials have repeatedly accused Syria and Iran of assisting Hezbollah and other militant groups, including Hamas. Military officials said Iranian troops were directly involved in an attack late Friday on an Israeli warship that killed four soldiers.
About 100 Iranian soldiers are in Lebanon and helped fire the Iranian-made, radar-guided C-802 missile at the ship that was cruising off the coast of Lebanon when it was hit, the official said. The troops involved in firing the missiles are from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the official added.
The missile has a range of approximately 100 kilometres, or 60 miles.
Another Hezbollah missile also hit and sank a nearby civilian merchant ship at around the same time, Twelve Egyptian sailors were on board the Cambodian merchant ship and were rescued from the water by other passing ships.
The current round of Hezbollah-Israeli fighting erupted Wednesday after the guerrillas attacked an Israeli military patrol, killing eight soldiers and capturing two others. Since then, more than 105 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and four Israeli civilians have been killed.
Israel has bombarded Lebanon’s airport and main roads in the most intensive offensive against the country in 24 years, while Hezbollah has fired an almost non-stop barrage of rockets at northern Israeli towns and cities.
In Haifa on Saturday, the Israeli army deployed a Patriot missile battery, the army said. The missile defence system cannot destroy Katyusha rockets – hundreds of which have been fired at Israel from Lebanon in recent days – but could protect against surface-to-surface missiles, such as those possessed by Syria, the army said.
The deployment of the US-made defence system appeared to signify that Israel was bracing for the possibility that fighting could spread to Syria.
On Saturday, Hezbollah rockets hit Tiberias three times, the first attack on the city since the 1973 Mideast war. At least two houses were directly hit, but only a few light injuries were reported, medics said.
Earlier today it was reported that at least 12 Lebanese villagers, including women and children, were killed in what appeared to be an Israeli airstrike on a convoy of vehicles fleeing a village near the border with Israel in southern Lebanon, a witness said.
The Lebanese convoy was leaving the border village of Marwaheen, when it was attacked. An Associated Press photographer said he counted 12 bodies in two cars that were destroyed by the attack shortly after midday (10am Irish time).
Several hours earlier, Israeli forces across the border told villagers by loudspeaker to leave the area or else the village would be destroyed. They did not give a reason for the ultimatum.
Great. Sofalad is on his way from Tiberius to Tel Aviv. Although Tel Aviv has Patriot batteries all over the place. Tiberius didn't.
There...fixed the biased and intentionally misleading statement.
Why aren't these technology application possibilities being utilized?
Or...am I watching too many movies lately?