Israeli minister: Third war on Lebanon in sight

An Israeli cabinet minister warns of the third Israeli war on Lebanon amid reports that Tel Aviv has mobilized its troops.

“We are heading toward a new confrontation in the north,” said minister without portfolio, Yossi Peled in remarks carried by military radio and the Israeli news website Ynet, the AFP reported.

The London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Friday that the troops had been called to the northern the borders Lebanon to carry out “military maneuvers.”

“I don’t know when it will happen, just as we did not know when the second Lebanon war would erupt,” Peled added, referring to Israel’s ground and aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon in 2006, which left some 1,200, mostly civilian, Lebanese dead.

The 33-Day War and another bloody incursion in 2000 were fought off by Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, which is an active member of the country’s coalition government.

The movement has, meanwhile, reportedly tightened security measures along Lebanon’s southern border in reaction to successive reports of Israeli military escalation.

Peled added that Israel would hold Hezbollah and Syria responsible for any attack on Israel.

Hezbollah leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah and authorities in Damascus have repeatedly warned Tel Aviv against warlike incitements, promising due response.