ISRAEL PREPARING FOR WAR WITH LEBANON, GAZA

Tel Aviv, 14 Jumadil Akhir 1435/14 April 2014 (MINA) – The Israeli military’s Chief of Staff Benny Gantz says Tel Aviv is getting ready for what he called future wars against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Gantz made the remarks in an interview with Israeli media over the weekend. He said that a ground offensive in Lebanon is “necessary” in a possible confrontation with the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, Press TV reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

Israel has repeatedly attacked Lebanon over the past decades. About 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Israeli regime’s war on Lebanon in 2006.

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In the 33-Day war in 2006, Hezbollah fighters defeated the Israeli forces and Tel Aviv was forced to retreat without achieving any of its objectives.

In August 2012, Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah had both the capability and the courage to defend Lebanon and that the movement’s missiles were ready to strike certain targets inside Israel in self-defense if Tel Aviv launches an attack on Lebanon.

The Israeli military is preparing for any possible scenario in the besieged Gaza Strip and Syria, Gantz added.

“We can expect, I assume, further confrontations in the Gaza Strip. We are preparing the shift from routine life to a state of emergency,” he further said.

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The Israeli military frequently targets Palestinians along the border with Gaza, which remains literally cut off from the outside world by a crippling Israeli blockade.

Attacks against Gazans continue despite a 2012 truce that ended a deadly Israeli onslaught against the territory.

Over 160 Palestinians were killed and some 1,200 others injured in the eight-day Israeli offensive.(T/P04/P03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)