Halutz: More attacks on north coming
On the heels of massive Hizbullah attack on IDF posts, Chief of staff says army anticipates more attacks in near future, intelligence reports point to attempts to kidnap soldiers: ‘Hizbullah is motivated to carry on heating up border; its activists enjoying Syrian push, with Damascus trying to divert attention from Mehlis report‘
Less than two days after the attacks by Lebanese Shiite group Hizbullah on the IDF posts situated along the northern border, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said the army is anticipating more attacks in the near future, as intelligence reports point to attempts to kidnap soldiers in the near future.
Speaking at a ceremony marking new recruitments, Halutz said, “Hizbullah is motivated to carry on heating up the border and its activists are enjoying a Syrian push as Damascus is trying to divert attention with the Mehlis report due in December.”
The international community is exercising weighty pressure on Syria to cooperate with a United Nations investigation probing the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The investigation team is headed by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis.
Halutz noted that Israel’s possession of the bodies of four Hizbullah terrorists killed in clashes with the IDF Monday will fuel the group’s motivation to carry out attacks and attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers.
“They failed, that’s true, yet the gap between failure and success is slim, and they wanted to kidnap a soldier. They failed and they paid the heaviest price. We do not need to praise ourselves for our success but be prepared for the future,” Halutz told new recruits.
He noted that Israel has no interest in escalating the status quo along the Lebanese border or harming Lebanese citizens or infrastructure, yet the Lebanese government should know that it bears responsibility for what happens on its soil.
“It’s easy to widen the scope of Israel’s operations, yet this will serve the interests of Hizbullah and we are not interested in drawing ourselves to their agenda,” the IDF chief said.
Halutz acknowledged that the borderline village of Rajar, half of which lies in Lebanon and the other half in Israel, constitutes a weak spot as it makes infiltrations easy and exposes Israeli citizens and soldiers to the danger of being kidnapped.
The clashes Monday saw the ball fall in Lebanon’s court, Halutz said, noting the international community should press the Lebanese government to comply with international demands that it send troops to the south, currently controlled by Hizbullah.
As many as 12 Israeli citizens and soldiers were injured on Monday when Hizbullah attacked an IDF post on Mount Dov as one of its elite units entered the village of Rajar almost simultaneously, hoping to take troops there by surprise and kidnap soldiers.
Yet alert troops foiled the attacks with an IDF new recruit opening fire and killing four terrorists.
137 anti-pullout activists being probed
Halutz used the occasion to note that there are 137 youths being investigated for illegal activities against the security forces during the disengagement from the Gaza Strip over summer, with the army suspending their enlistment until the end of the legal process.
He made it clear that the IDF will refuse to accept in its ranks people convicted of violent crimes. “He who is convicted has no place among us, we cannot tolerate young people convicted of violent offences,” he noted.
Hinting to the military’s commitment to keeping its ranks clean of troublemakers, Halutz noted that the door will be closed even to those convicted of minor offenses. In this respect he evoked the case of young activist who was sentenced to two years imprisonment for trying to block a major highway.
The army chief said teenagers of religious and Zionist backgrounds are not rushing to join the army en masse in protest of the IDF’s eviction of settlers from Gaza settlements.
