|
 Israel said it had received a message from UNIFIL, the U.N.
peacekeeping force in Lebanon, that Hezbollah was not interested in
further escalation.
In Beirut, a Lebanese source briefed on the situation told Reuters
that Israel informed Hezbollah via UNIFIL "that it will make do with
what happened yesterday and it does not want the battle to expand".
Asked on Israel's Army Radio whether Hezbollah had sought to
de-escalate, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said: "There are lines of
coordination between us and Lebanon via UNIFIL and such a message
was indeed received from Lebanon."
A salvo of Hezbollah guided missiles killed an Israeli infantry
major and a conscript soldier as they rode in unmarked civilian
vehicles along the Lebanese border on Wednesday.
Israel then launched an artillery and air barrage, and a Spanish
peacekeeper was killed. Spain's ambassador to the U.N. blamed the
Israeli fire for his death.
It was the most serious clash on that border since 2006, when
Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war. On Thursday, the frontier
was quiet, though Lebanese media reported overflights by Israeli air
force drones.
Both sides appear to share an interest in avoiding further
escalation.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which fought Israel to a standstill in
2006, is busy supporting Damascus in Syria's civil war, and the
level of destruction in Lebanon during the 2006 conflict could also
be weighing on its calculations.
Israel is gearing up for a March 17 general election and gauging the
costs of its offensive on the Gaza Strip last year against
Palestinian guerrillas, whose rocket arsenal is dwarfed by
Hezbollah's weapons cache.
REVENGE
In a separate interview, Yaalon described Israeli forces on the
Lebanese border as being vigilant, but not on war footing.
"I can't say whether the events are behind us," he told Israel
Radio. "Until the area completely calms down, the Israel Defense
Forces will remain prepared and ready."
Yaalon termed Wednesday's Hezbollah attack "revenge" for the Israeli
air strike on Jan. 18 in southern Syria that killed several
Hezbollah members, including a senior operative, along with an
Iranian general.
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Israel has not formally acknowledged carrying out the air strike,
but Yaalon said it had set back Hezbollah and Iranian efforts to
"open a new front" against the Jewish state from the Syrian Golan
Heights.
After the air strike, Israeli army installations and civilian
communities in the north hunkered down in anticipation of Hezbollah
reprisals. Sightings of suspicious movement on the Lebanese side of
the border triggered several security alerts.
Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said
Hezbollah fired Kornet anti-tank missiles in Wednesday's attack from
4-5 km (2-2.5 miles) away -- an extreme range for the weapon that
apparently lent the launchers the element of surprise.
Lerner linked Hezbollah's tactical skill to its Syria intervention:
"This should not come as a great surprise given that they have
gained so much live combat experience over the past two years."
UNIFIL officials did not immediately confirm or deny passing
messages between Israel and Hezbollah. UNIFIL says it has no
contacts with Hezbollah but is in touch with the Lebanese
government, of which Hezbollah is a part.
During Wednesday's flare-up, Israeli troops launched a search for
suspected tunnels that Hezbollah might use to send in guerrillas for
a cross-border attack -- a tactic employed by Palestinian Hamas
fighters during the 2014 Gaza war.
"No tunnels have been found so far," Yaalon told Army Radio.
(Writing by Dan Williams and Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Jeffrey
Heller and Crispian Balmer)
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