Israeli military vows harsh response following threat by Hezbollah leader

Israel's military chief vowed a "harsh response" to those aiming to attack Israel, a day after the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah organization threatened to avenge a recent assassination of the group's senior operative.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, said during a military ceremony on Monday that Israel's enemies who would try to attack it should expect "swift retaliation" that would result in "harsh results," the Ha'aretz daily reported.

The military chief said that the Israeli army is prepared to face any threat "even beyond our borders, amid the threats that are being made from the north," adding that the Israeli forces "are ready for any challenge, as we have proven in the past."

Eisenkot's remarks come a day after the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah organization vowed to attack Israel in retaliation for the assassination attributed to it of Samir Kuntar, a prominent Hezbollah operative who served 30 years in an Israeli prison for the killing of four Israelis in 1979, up until his release in 2008.

"The retaliation to Samir's assassination will inevitably come," Nasrallah vowed in a televised speech on Sunday, adding that the timing and place of the retaliation is in the hands of Hezbollah's fighters and military commanders.

Israeli officials did not officially acknowledge responsibility for the strike, which is widely attributed to the country by international media outlets and analysts, but lawmakers did express their satisfaction with Kuntar's death.

Several hours after the alleged assassination last week, three rockets were fired from Lebanon into northwest Israel, for the first time in a year, causing no injury or damages. The Israeli army retaliated with artillery and air strikes.

Israeli military officials believe the rockets fire was the work of a Palestinian organization from southern Lebanon, operating with permission from Hezbollah. The last major confrontation between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah took place in 2006

Several air strikes in Syria in the past several years were attributed to Israel, who did not publicly acknowledge them, allegedly in order to prevent the transfer of weapons or thwart planned attacks on Israel.

Israel's policy in recent years has been to steer clear of the Syrian civil war, but officials have hinted that Israel would know how to operate in order to secure its defense interests. Endit