TEL AVIV – Turning to psychological warfare, Hezbollah recently erected a giant sign on the Israel-Lebanon border with images of “Hezbollah heroes” alongside the threatening inscription: “This account is not settled.”
The sign included a photo of Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in a car bombing in Damascus nearly a decade ago, Hebrew news site nrg said. The Shi’ite group and foreign media said Israel was responsible for the bombing.
The sign also featured a map showing Jewish towns and settlements north of the Galilee that Hezbollah has threatened to infiltrate from southern Lebanon. The terror group has pledged to seize parts of the Galilee in a future war.
“We can see the sign very clearly … it’s hard to miss it,” nrg quoted a resident of the northern border kibbutz of Malkia as saying.
Last week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot said the military was “operating under the radar to prevent Hezbollah from getting stronger.” His remarks came in the wake of reports of an air strike on a weapons shipment bound for the Shiite group in Syria, reports that Hezbollah later denied.
Eizenkot added that neither Hezbollah nor Gaza-based terror Hamas are interested in a fresh round of conflict in the near future.
According to the military chief, the Lebanon-based terror group is demoralized and facing a budgetary crisis due to its involvement in Syria. Fighting on behalf of Bashar Assad has significantly weakened the Iran-backed group, he said.
Eizenkot said that recent threats made by Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, including a vow to strike Israel’s vital infrastructure sites such as the Dimona nuclear plant and the Haifa ammonia factory in a future war, were nothing more than a deterrence tactic to maintain the status quo.