IAF jets scrambled to northern border

Aircraft that infiltrated Israeli air-space turns back into Lebanon; IDF concerned Hizbullah may attack.

By YAAKOV KATZ
jets 224.88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
jets 224.88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Thirty-five years after the Yom Kippur War erupted, the Israel Air Force scrambled fighter jets to the border with Lebanon after a suspicious aircraft was detected approaching Israeli airspace. Two jets and an attack helicopter were scrambled to the border one hour before the fast ended after an unidentified aircraft was spotted flying very close to the border. The aircraft, together with ground forces, conducted searches on the ground and shortly later returned to base after the plane turned around and flew back north into Lebanon. The IDF was on a general high level of alert throughout the country throughout the holiday and particularly in the North, where intelligence officials have said it is possible that Hizbullah will carry out a cross-border attack during the holiday season to avenge the assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh earlier this year. A similar incident occurred in April when fighter jets were scrambled to Acre after an unidentified aircraft was spotted over the city, raising fears that an enemy plane had infiltrated Israeli airspace. The plan turned out to be an Israeli civilian aircraft that had forgotten to coordinate its flight plan with aviation authorities. While the IDF is concerned that Hizbullah will try to kidnap soldiers - as it has done in the past - current fears are that terrorists will cross into Israel, fly an explosives-laden drone into Israel, as it tried to do during the Second Lebanon War, or infiltrate a border community like Shlomi and barricade themselves inside a home with civilian residents. The defense establishment is concerned that Hizbullah will use the holidays, as well as the switchover in government - from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Kadima Party head Tzipi Livni - to launch an attack. Intelligence assessments have raised the possibility that Hizbullah believes that with Olmert heading a transition government and Livni still working on forming a coalition, neither one will want to respond harshly to an isolated Hizbullah attack and risk another war erupting in the North.