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Alleged Israeli Attack in Syria Registers as an Earthquake

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JERUSALEM, Israel On Sunday night, massive explosions lit up the night sky inside Syria. One of the blasts was so huge it registered more than 2 on the Richter scale on seismic monitors inside Lebanon and Turkey.  

Syria blamed Israel for the attack on the 47th Military Brigade compound near Hama and Aleppo that reportedly killed 18 Iranians and dozens more. Syria claimed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members were at the base.  

Israel typically offers no comment about attacks of this kind but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency meeting of the security cabinet following the attack.  

Amos Yadlin, the former chief of IDF Intelligence and director of the Institute for National Security Studies, told The Israel Project "Iranian retaliation is on its way."  

Yadlin said Iran has threatened to retaliate a number of times recently and it had a numbers of way it could retaliate.    

"It can be the launching of ballistic missiles whether from Iran or from Syria or from Lebanon.  They have their proxies all over," Yadlin said. "They are doing it every week from Yemen to Saudi Arabia.  They can use proxies or they can use it directly.  It can be an attack on the border of Israel on the Golan Heights or Lebanon with Hezbollah. Or it [an attack] can be abroad."   

MK Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States who serves as deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office, told CBN News Israel has four red lines inside Syria.  

"If anyone shoots at us, we're going to shoot back. If Iran or anybody else tries to deliver precision-guided missiles to Hezbollah, we'll stop it. If Iran tries to build underground factories for upgrading Hezbollah's missiles to precision-guided rockets, we'll stop it," Oren said. "And if Iran tries to build bases, airfields or a naval port in Syria, we will stop it." 

Oren openly discussed the possibility of war with Iran because of their incessant march inside Syria toward Israel's northern border and the way Iran seems to be crossing Israel's red lines. As one of Israel's top diplomats, he believes Israel needs to be prepared not only militarily but diplomatically.   

"I think militarily we're very much prepared," he said. "I want to see Israel much better prepared for the diplomatic and legal consequences of any of these wars.  If we do engage in a broader military confrontation with Hamas in the south or Hezbollah in the north, our enemies will be using thousands of human shields. And their goal will be to actually get us to cause harm to these human shields, then our enemies can then sue us for war crimes."

Oren said Hezbollah on Israel's northern border has about 150,000 rockets at Israel.

"These rockets are deeply embedded in Lebanese villages. They're actually in Lebanese households. The roof opens up. The missile goes out. And they do this on purpose," he continued. "They're using these Lebanese civilians as human shields because they know Israel – in order to defend itself – will have to blow up the village, will have to blow up the houses.  No way we can get at the rockets otherwise.  Civilians then will become casualties.  Israel will be condemned as a war criminal and that is our great danger. We have a military Iron Dome system that takes down rockets. We do not yet have a legal and diplomatic Iron Dome."

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About The Author

Chris Mitchell
Chris
Mitchell

In a time where the world's attention is riveted on events in the Middle East, CBN viewers have come to appreciate Chris Mitchell's timely reports from this explosive region of the world. Chris brings a Biblical and prophetic perspective to these daily news events that shape our world. He first began reporting on the Middle East in the mid-1990s. Chris repeatedly traveled there to report on the religious and political issues facing Israel and the surrounding Arab states. One of his more significant reports focused on the emigration of persecuted Christians from the Middle East. In the past