Senior Iranian and Hezbollah figures killed in an airstrike in Syria last weekend were likely planning an attack on Israel, media report, citing Israeli security sources.
Six Iranian army chiefs died alongside five Hezbollah militants after an Israeli helicopter fired rockets at a convoy in the Golan Heights region on Sunday. Among those killed was Iranian General Mohammed Allahdadi, as well as commander Abu Ali Tabatabai, who is known to have worked with both Hezbollah and Iran.
According to a report by the British newspaper 'Daily Mail', Major General Eyal Ben Reuven, a former deputy head in the Israeli Defense Forces, accused the senior military figures of meeting to plot an attack on Israel. Ben Reuven said that a "high-level" and "sophisticated" attack on northern Israel could be "imminent", a week after Hezbollah's leader threatened to bring war to the region.
The warning comes just a week after Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, warned that the group was "ready and prepared for a confrontation in the Galilee and beyond the Galilee." Iran has also promised a "crushing response" to the weekend strike, without laying out exactly what action will be taken.
General Mohammad Ali Jafari, head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said: "These martyrdoms proved the need to stick with jihad [holy war]. The Zionists must await ruinous thunderbolts. The Revolutionary Guards will fight to the end of the Zionist regime... We will not rest easy until this epitome of vice is totally deleted from the region's geopolitics."
Israeli troops have been marshaled along the country's northern border, while an Iron Dome missile launcher has been deployed to destroy any incoming rockets. Senior Iranian politicians are said to be incensed at the death of Allahdadi, which they confirmed yesterday, saying he had been 'martyred' in the name of his country.
