Netanyahu cites ‘security’ after Hezbollah raid

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday Israel was doing all that was "necessary" to ensure its security, following reports of an overnight air raid against Hezbollah targets on the Syrian-Lebanese border.

"We are doing everything that is necessary in order to defend the security of Israel," Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem.

"We will not say what we're doing or what we're not doing" to maintain Israel's security, he said in a cryptic reply to a question on the raid.

Security sources had told Al Arabiya News Channel late Monday that Israeli airstrikes targeted a site belonging to the Shiite Lebanese movement Hezbollah near the Lebanon-Syrian border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the target was a Hezbollah "missile base." Sources told Al Arabiya that the airstrikes killed a number of Hezbollah members.

Meanwhile, Al Arabiya’s correspondent said the Israeli army rejected to give a comment explaining these raids against its arch-enemy, Hezbollah.

The Hezbollah television station al-Manar said there had been "no raid on Lebanese territory," reporting only the "strong presence of enemy planes over the area north of Bekaa" in eastern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli warplanes launched two raids targeting al-Nabi Shayth, a village located in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley near the Syria-Lebanon borders.

NNA added that there were also “intensive Israeli flights at very low altitude over the eastern and western mountains chains of Lebanon.”

The independent Lebanese news channel MTV described the airstrikes as “mock raids” over Brital, Hor Ti’la, al-Nabi Shayth, al-Khidhar, and Ali al-Nahri; villages located in the bordering Bekaa valley.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Agence France-Presse the target was a Hezbollah “missile base.”

Al Arabiya’s correspondent citing unconfirmed reports said Hezbollah’s moving convoy was targeted because it tried to bring ballistic missiles from Syria to Lebanon.

Hezbollah has long support the Syrian government in its fight against rebels.

In recent months, several blasts were directed against Hezbollah-controlled areas and convoys in Beirut and the Bekaa valley in eastern Lebanon.

(With AFP)