Israel categorically rejected Hizballah’s proposal of a “limited reprisal” to close the books on the IDF’s weekend attacks in Beirut and East Lebanon.
The offer, as a formula for averting a general flareup of hostilities, was made during an exchange of back-channel messages on Tuesday, Aug. 27. However, as DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal here, it was flatly rejected by Israel who replied unequivocally that any Hizballah attack on a military or civilian target -“limited” or not – would elicit a crushing Israeli blow against its forces in Lebanon.
For added muscle, the Israeli Air Force has been maintaining a round-the-clock presence over Lebanon, ready to strike Hizballah for any aggression without delay.
The leaders of Iran’s Lebanese surrogate must therefore take into account that even a single rocket fired against Israel would bring forth a deadly Israeli counterblow and they have no way of predicting where that blow will fall.
It is worth noting that not a single shot has been fired against the IAF aircraft over Lebanon, despite Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s threat on Sunday to shoot down every Israeli aerial intruder.
According to intelligence estimates, Hizballah will try hard to stage an attack in the coming three weeks to take advantage of the pre-election climate prevailing in Israel in the run-up to its Sept. 17 general election.
In line with the US-Israel alliance, President Donald Trump called on Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi, when they met at the weekend G-7 summit in Biarritz, to do what he can to rein in the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and keep them from joining the violent campaign Iran and Hizballah are waging against Israel. El-Sisi responded by inviting a Hamas delegation to Cairo on Tuesday, Aug. 27 to warn them that Egyptian-Gaza links would be instantly severed if Hamas or Jihad struck Israel again.
DEBKAfile stands firmly by its report that the real object of Israel’s drone attack in Beirut’s Dahya district last Saturday was the targeted assassination of a senior Iran-appointed liaison officer – not a missile factory, as falsely reported by The London Times and presented as fact by domestic media.
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