IDF’s ‘Trick’ Helped Limit Lebanon Flareup, Report Says

It was a “trick” by the IDF that perhaps more than anything restored calm to the northern border after the incident in which Hezbollah terrorists fired a missile at an army base in Israel Sunday afternoon. The IDF, it was revealed Monday, was fully prepared for the Hezbollah attack, and had a series of responses prepared, with the goal of maintaining Israeli deterrence and calming the situation down.

The attacks took place on a base next to the town of Avivim, and Kibbutz Yir’on, both right on the Lebanese border. B’chasdei Shamayim, no Israeli injuries were reported. In response to the attack, Israeli planes hit some 50 Hezbollah targets.

A report in Yediot Acharonot described the aftermath of the rocket attack. As Israel was responding to the attack by hitting Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, four IDF soldiers were loaded on a helicopter, headed to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. The soldiers were “bloodied” – with fake blood – and were given splints by first aid personnel on the ground, to give the impression that they were injured.

They were not, but Hezbollah thought they were, and media reports in outlets controlled by the terror group celebrated the “serious injuries” the terror group had inflicted on the IDF, with some reports claiming the soldiers had died. The IDF, meanwhile, maintained silence, announcing only hours later that there had actually been no Israeli injuries.

The aim of the “skit,” the report said, was to allow Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to claim a “victory,” after threatening to strike back against Israel after IDF attacks on Hezbollah and Iranian assets in Lebanon in recent weeks. Na’im Kassam, a deputy of Nasrallah, said that “Hezbollah has succeeded in proving that it is of equal strength to the IDF. Hezbollah has imposed on Israel a new situation that will be a deterrent to Israeli actions. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a death for a death. We are on the winning path,” he added.

The Yediot report quoted both Israeli and Hezbollah sources as saying that as far as each side is concerned, the incident is closed, but the IDF is remaining on high alert along the northern border, at least for the next few days, the report added.