Israel mum on alleged Syrian attack
2013-02-01 18:04
Jerusalem - Israeli media on Friday warned that an
alleged air strike on a convoy carrying arms from Syria to Lebanon's Hezbollah
could set off a chain reaction, and reported troops on high alert in the
country's north.
There was still no official Israeli comment on Syrian
claims that Israeli warplanes bombed a military site near Damascus on Wednesday
or on separate reports that its aircraft struck a weapons convoy along the
Syria-Lebanon border.
Newspapers, however, seemed to have little doubt on what
had happened or the likely consequences.
"Complete restraint over the long term to Israel's
actions could be considered weakness by Hezbollah, so we should expect some
form of response, even if not immediately and not necessarily a broad rocket
and missile attack on Israel," defence commentator Amos Harel wrote in the
left-leaning Haaretz daily.
"The Hezbollah convoy, which according to foreign
reports was attacked from the air while travelling from Syria to the Bekaa
Valley in Lebanon, laden with explosives, will not be the last," Nahum
Barnea wrote in Yediot Aharonot.
"It would seem, from a pessimistic view, that we are
on the way to a military confrontation on at least one of the two northern
fronts," he added, referring to Israel's borders with Syrian and Lebanon.
The top-selling paper's front page said that the army's
northern command had declared a state of high alert, but the military spokesperson's
office refused to confirm or deny this when asked by AFP.
The Syrian army said an Israeli strike early on Wednesday
targeted a "scientific research centre" near Damascus, with local
residents telling AFP it was a non-conventional weapons research centre.
Israel had frequently warned that if Syria's stockpile of
chemical weapons fell into the Hezbollah hands, this would be a casus belli.
But the Jewish state has also raised the alarm over
long-range Scud missiles or other advanced weaponry, such as anti-aircraft
systems and surface-to-surface missiles, being transferred to the Lebanese Shi’ite
militia.
"Efforts to transfer advanced weaponry to Hezbollah
will continue, and will even accelerate as President Bashar Assad's regime
continues to erode," wrote Israel Hayom, a free sheet considered close to
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"On the assumption that Israel will know of this and
will take action in the future, domestic pressure will mount in Syria and in
Lebanon to respond, and this is liable to set the northern border on fire at
any moment," it added.
Damascus has threatened to retaliate for the reported
Israeli raid, and Syria's close ally Iran warned the attack would have
"grave consequences”.
