Israel on Thursday played down media reports of heightened tension along the Syrian border, insisting there was little likelihood of military confrontation between the two countries. "Israel has no intention of attacking Syria, and the latter says only it is ready to respond to any attack, so the risk of a military confrontation is very low," said Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon.
His remarks came as Israeli newspapers published headline stories claiming the military was on high alert after Syria reportedly boosted its deployment near the border and called up reserves. The Jerusalem Post newspaper said increased tension along the frontier, as well as in the Gaza Strip, led Defence Minister Ehud Barak to cancel a planned visit to Germany, though a spokesman said the decision was linked to a planned home front defence exercise next week.
Spokesman Shlomo Dror told AFP Syria has staged military manoeuvres and made other preparations for possible confrontation in the event Lebanon's Hizbullah seeks to avenge the February 12 killing in Damascus of its military leader Imad Mugnieh, which the Shiite militia blames on Israel.
But Ramon, a close ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Hizbullah was well aware that "if they react too strongly, we will also react harshly." "I don't know if they will react or not, but we must do everything in our power to thwart such a retaliation and to thwart their ability to avenge," he said at a conference in Tel Aviv.
The Tel Aviv-based Yedioth Ahronoth daily claimed there were increasing signs that an attack could take place soon. "And the more these signs accumulate -- unusual movements, meetings between various figures, information from all sorts of sources -- the more the temperature rises," the daily wrote.
