Binyamin Netanyahu says attackers will pay the ‘full price’ as fears grow of escalating confrontation on the border with Lebanon

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah stepped to the brink of their most serious confrontation since they fought a brutal month-long war in Lebanon in 2006 after Hezbollah fired five anti-tank missiles at a pair of Israeli military vehicles, killing two soldiers and injuring seven others.

The ambush on Wednesday morning followed 24 hours of violence on Israel’s northern border that saw missiles fired both from Syria – where Hezbollah is fighting alongside the troops of President Bashar al-Assad – and Lebanon. For its part Israel launched air strikes and fired artillery across the border.

The two dead Israeli soldiers were identified as Captain Yochai Klengel, 25, and Sergeant Dor Nini, 20.

Two Israeli soldiers killed as Hezbollah missile hits vehicle on Lebanon border Read more

Speaking on Wednesday evening, after a day spent in meetings with his security advisers, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, hinted at further retaliation, saying those responsible would pay the “full price”.

Netanayhu was meeting again with key advisers on Wedsnesday night to consider Israel’s response with one option reported to be to widen Israel’s retaliation.

Observers in Israel were divided about whether the exchange of fire across the border had ended, with some signs that both sides were attempting to contain the fallout.

After the attack, however, Israel told the UN security council it would take all necessary measures to defend itself.

“Israel will not stand by as Hezbollah targets Israelis,” Israel’s UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, said in a letter to the security council and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

“Israel will not accept any attacks on its territory and it will exercise its right to self-defence and take all necessary measures to protect its population,” he added.

The US condemned the Hezbollah attack as “an act of violence” but called for calm. “We urge all parties to refrain from any action that could escalate the situation,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The incident occurred at about 11.30am near Har Dov and Shebaa Farms – an area occupied by Israel where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet. The two white-painted Israeli vehicles were travelling on a road shared with civilian traffic about 2km inside the border.

Israel will exercise its right to self-defence and take all necessary measures to protect its population Ron Prosor

According to Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, the first vehicle – a pickup truck – was hit from a distance of about 4km by a Kornet anti-tank missile, killing two soldiers inside.

As soldiers in the following vehicle exited they were hit by shrapnel in the open, injuring seven. Television footage and photographs from the scene showed the two burning Israeli vehicles and images of soldiers treating wounded colleagues.

Israel responded with air strikes in Syria and artillery fire into Lebanon. A Spanish UN peacekeeper serving with the Unifil monitoring force was killed in the border clashes. He was named as Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, aged 36, from Málaga.

Roman Oyarzun Marchesi, Spain’s ambassador to the United Nations, blamed Israel for Toledo’s death. He said: “It was because of this escalation of violence, and it came from the Israeli side.”

The Security Council condemned the peacekeeper’s death in the strongest terms and offered its deepest sympathies.

The attack on the two unarmoured Israeli vehicles carrying soldiers from the Golani brigade took place a few hours after Israeli air strikes into Syria, and after two missiles landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Claiming responsibility for the attacks Hezbollah said they were carried out by “righteous martyrs of Quneitra” in revenge for the killing 10 days ago of a Hezbollah commander in Syria in an Israeli air strike that also claimed the life of an Iranian general. In a statement, Hezbollah said its fighters destroyed a number of Israeli vehicles that were carrying Israeli officers and soldiers, and caused casualties among “enemy ranks”.

Although most analysts had concluded before the attack that neither Hezbollah – embroiled in the war in Syria on Assad’s side – nor Israel, in the midst of elections, had an interest in a full-scale conflict, recent incidents have pointed to the risk of a cross-border incident turning into something more serious.

The incident raises fears of an escalating confrontation along the increasingly tense northern border.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Aftermath of Hezbollah missile strike on Israeli military vehicle – video

There have been a series of cross-border exchanges in the last 24 hours between Israeli forces and fighters in Syria and Lebanon, including members of Hezbollah.

An hour after the anti-tank missile attack, mortars were fired on Israeli military positions on Har Dov mountain and Mount Hermon. Israel responded by firing at least 50 artillery shells into Lebanon.

The UN later confirmed the peacekeeper had been killed in southern Lebanon during the border clashes.

Tensions have been mounting on Israel’s northern border for months but have escalated sharply in the last week and a half after an Israeli strike near the Syrian border town of Quneitra killed an Iranian general and a senior Hezbollah commander who were travelling in a convoy of several cars.

Both Hezbollah and Iran have threatened retaliation for that attack.

On Tuesday afternoon two missiles landed in the Israeli occupied area of the Golan Heights, which saw Israel return fire with artillery before the air strikes were launched under the cover of darkness.

Moshe Ya’alon, the Israeli defence minister, warned: “The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] holds the Syrian government accountable for all attacks emanating from its land and will operate by any means necessary to defend Israeli civilians. Such blatant breaches of Israeli sovereignty will not be tolerated.”

Despite the sharp escalation in violence in the past 24 hours, analysts pointed out that Hezbollah had chosen to carry out its attack in revenge for the killing of one of its commanders and an Iranian general in the occupied Shebaa Farms area, suggesting it may want to limit the fallout from the attack.

Israel Ziv, a reserve Israeli general and a former head of the IDF’s operations directorate, told reporters the situation was “flammable” and that Israel should work to contain the situation.

“We could find ourselves in a war that does not belong to Israel,” he said.