“It is believed, despite being spread thin by the Syrian civil war, that Hezbollah is planning a wave of violence against the Jewish state,” Gabriel Mitchell, a coordinator of the Israel-Turkey Project at Mitvim — the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, told Sputnik Sunday.
According to the Middle East analyst, the recent attack on Hezbollah “is in line with a long standing Israeli policy of deterrence” and could have been provoked by security concerns ahead of elections.
“…it is worth mentioning that the timing of the attack — two months prior to Israeli elections — will undoubtedly raise security concerns for voters increasingly distraught by the growth of radical Islam in the region,” Mitchell explained.
On Sunday, western media reported, citing sources in Hezbollah, that an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles near the Syrian town of Quneitra on the border with Golan Heights, killing six members of the organization.
Along with other militants, a son of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh died in the attack.
The Daily Star reported that Hezbollah field commander Mohammad Issa, known as Abu Issa, was also been killed in the strike.
At the same time, a source in the Syrian Army confirmed the deaths of six people in the attack in a phone interview with RIA Novosti Sunday. According to the source, the Israeli helicopter did not enter the Syrian airspace.
Hezbollah, a paramilitary and political organization originating in Lebanon's Shiite population, was established in the 1980s. The group's primary goal was military opposition to Israel’s occupation of Lebanon.
Hezbollah is considered a terrorist state by many Western governments including Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and many European states, but not by Russia.
Hezbollah militants have been taking part in the Syrian government's operations against the armed opposition and the Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
