'Hizbullah: Israel preparing something'

Sources tell Arab paper the organization is on high alert.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Sheikh Naim Kassem (photo credit: AP)
Sheikh Naim Kassem
(photo credit: AP)
Israel is “preparing something” for Lebanon and Hizbullah is on high alert to prevent it, unnamed sources in the group were quoted by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat as saying Saturday.
The IDF recently declassified and released high-quality intelligence of Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon. Many interpreted the IDF's publicizing of the intelligence as an attempt both to deter Hizbullah attacks and to prepare the Israeli public for a future war should it be deemed necessary.
The Hizbullah sources claimed the photos were fabrications, but said “we are avoiding any heated exchanges because we want the Lebanese’s summer to pass quietly and without incident.”
Hizbullah's deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem on Friday said Israel would suffer tremendous casualties in the event of another war.
In an interview with Syrian television cited by Press TV, Qassem said: "If the result of the July [2006] war was a failure to the Israelis, then Israel would suffer a big loss in its next aggression."
RELATED:Sending Hizbullah a message: Israel is readyEditorial: The IDF fights backQassem's remarks came on the fourth anniversary of the Second Lebanon War and were considered a response to the IDF's release of the photos.
On Wednesday, top IDF officers revealed that the air force today has thousands of designated targets it can bomb if war were to break out. Some of them, like those that appear on the maps of the southern Lebanese village of el-Khiam that were declassified on Wednesday, are of arms caches, command-and-control centers and rocket launchers. Others are likely long-range rockets, like the highly accurate M600 or Scuds, which Syria is reported to have recently transferred to Lebanon.
In the four years that have passed since the Second Lebanon War, both the IDF and Hizbullah have been busy studying their mistakes and implementing the necessary lessons. The IDF significantly increased training regimens, developed and procured active-protection systems for tanks and armored personnel carriers and is investing in building new urban warfare training centers due to an understanding that the next conflict would be fought in the narrow streets of southern Lebanese villages.
Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.