Militant group Hezbollah claims not interested in escalation: Israel

JERUSALEM: Amid a heightened security alert, Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah has passed on a message to Israel that it is not interested in any escalation, a day after claiming responsibility for an attack that killed two Israeli soldiers at the border and injured seven others.

Defence Minister, Moshe Ya'alon, today said that Israel has received a message from Hezbollah through United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that it was not interested in further fighting.

A Spanish UN peacekeeper was also killed in an exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel yesterday.

"Indeed, a message was received," Ya'alon said adding, "There are lines of coordination between us and Lebanon via UNIFIL (the UN force) and such a message was indeed received from Lebanon".

"I can't say whether the events are behind us," the Israeli Defence Minister later said in a radio interview emphasising, "until the area completely calms down, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) will remain prepared and ready".

The Hezbollah attack appeared to be in retaliation to an alleged January 18 Israeli air strike in southern Syria in which several operatives and an Iranian general were reportedly killed. Hezbollah and its main backer Iran had vowed to avenge the killings.

No signals of further violence were visible at the Israel-Lebanon border today but IDF seemed on high alert.

Meanwhile, IDF officer, Yochai Kalangel, 25, who was killed in yesterday's attack at the Israel-Lebanon border was laid to rest at Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem today.

Thousands of people arrived to honour Kalangel who was killed along with Staff Sergeant Dor Haim Nini when Hezbollah attacked IDF vehicles travelling in the village of Ghajar with Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles.

With elections round the corner in Israel, leading Israeli analysts contended that both Israel and Hezbollah were looking for calm at the borders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday threatened to act with force and inflict damages similar to that on Hamas in Gaza if Hezbollah looked for an escalation.

More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed in the bloody 50-day war fought between Gaza-based Hamas militants and Israel last summer.