Terrorists in Lebanon and Syria were preparing for Israel’s response to the massive barrage of rockets that were fired at the Jewish State earlier in the day from Lebanese territory.
In Lebanon, Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh met with Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah and with secretaries of other terror factions in Beirut on Thursday evening to discuss the attack and Israel’s anticipated retaliation.
“If Israel attacks, we will bomb Haifa,” Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah threatened in a brief statement late Thursday night.
“The occupation government is responsible for the barbaric attack on Al Aqsa and its worshippers (ed: on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem),” Haniyeh said in a statement.
“The Palestinian factions did not remain passive in the face of this aggression. The unity of the national line and resistance are key to defeating the Zionist project (ed: State of Israel) and achieving victory,” he said.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, likewise issued a statement. PIJ secretary-general Ziyad al-Nakhleh said, “The enemy’s threats do not frighten us but only strengthen our resolve. The resistance will remain united against any aggression, and our heroic warriors are on high alert to respond to any attack.”
There were multiple reports earlier in the evening claiming that UNIFIL “peace-keeping” forces (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) were evacuating their positions in anticipation of an Israeli response to the attacks earlier in the day.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, meanwhile, made a desperate attempt to forestall an Israeli strike, saying in a statement that Lebanon “condemns the firing of rockets from its southern territory.”
Mikati claimed in his statement that the Lebanese Army “is increasing its efforts to stop the rocket launches. Lebanon is completely opposed to any military escalation emanating from its territory, and opposes the exploitation of its territory for actions that cause destabilization,” he said.
No mention was made of the fact that Iran’s Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, has an arsenal of more than 130,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel. The Lebanese government has done nothing to comply with the terms of a truce reached after the 2006 Second Lebanon War with Israel in which it was required under the supervision of UNIFIL to disarm Hezbollah and all other factions other than its government’s military forces.
In Syria, opposition sources also said there was a heightened state of alert in force.
According to the Abu Ali Express website, Iranian militias reportedly evacuated their primary warehouses and outposts near Damascus International Airport — positions which have been repeatedly struck by Israeli forces in recent weeks.
Likewise, Hamas and other factions in Syria also raised their alert level, as did the Syrian military’s aerial defense systems in the central and southern regions of the country.
