Israel threatens Syria with ''military escalation'' while Hizbullah vows additional attacks

Israel threatened Syria Friday with "military escalation" if Hizbullah attacks are not prevented, a day after a rocket and mortar attack wounded three Israeli soldiers.  

"Israel does not wish a military escalation, but if Syria, which pulls all the strings in Lebanon, wants to trigger one through Hezbollah, it should know that we will not sit idly by," an Israeli official told AFP.  

That threat came on the heels of a warning by Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer after his meeting Thursday with US Middle East envoy David Satterfield that "the Syrians and the Lebanese are playing with fire."  

Mohammed Raad, the head of Hizbullah’s parliamentary Loyalty to the Resistance bloc, said the party was merely fulfilling its right to resist and would not stop until “the last Israeli occupier withdraws from the last grain of sand of occupied Lebanon.” 

“It’s our responsibility to continue our military operations against the occupation and we are ready to confront any escalation in the South,” Raad told reporters in Sidon.(Albawaba.com)