Hezbollah will fire rockets and missiles at Israel if an attack is carried out against Iran's nuclear installations, a former senior Mossad official said yesterday. Eliezer Tsafrir, a former department head at the intelligence agency, speaking at a conference on counter-terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Institute, Herzliya, that the Lebanese militant group would attack Israel, regardless of whether a strike was carried out by it or by the United States.
"In the event of an attempt to bomb the nuclear installations [in Iran], no matter by whom, Hezbollah, will attack Israel with its rockets," Tsafrir said. (Yoav Stern)
Palestinians' access to their lands around settlements is being blocked, according to a report to be released today by the human rights group B'Tselem. The report indicates that the state and settlements east of the separation fence have unofficially annexed strips of land amounting to 4,558 dunams (approximately 1,137 acres).
The additional land is meant to provide greater security for the settlements, the report notes, stating that from 2002 to 2004, 31 Israelis were killed in settlements by Palestinians, and many more were injured. Although they are declared closed military zones,the settlements are using the areas, the reports says, including for a poultry shed, a yeshiva and a vineyard.
The Yesha Council of settlements responded that B'Tselem report shows "it is a Palestinian nationalist organization masquerading as a human rights group," and that B'Tselem "knows if its demands are met, it will be easier to murder Jews." (Nadav Shragai)
