Mofaz on Lebanon: Increased terror risk

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that terror infrastructure in Lebanon was supplying the Islamic Jihad and Al Qaida inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to Mofaz, the reality on the ground in Syria and Lebanon had been getting increasingly complex, and the chances for terror attacks from Lebanon had heightened as a result. Mofaz also said that Israel would respond gravely to the Al Qaida statement of responsibility for the Katyusha attack last week. "The situation [Al Qaida's statement of responsibility] requires an appropriate response, and we know how to give it, as we did in the last event [Israel's missile strike on Lebanon]," said Mofaz during a tour of a northern IDF base. The defense minister added that there was a need for "specific changes" in Ghajar, relating to a Channel 2 report Monday night that claimed that one alternative being discussed was to move the 400 families in the northern part of the town - the Lebanese side - to the southern (Israeli) side and to complete the border fence, which is now breached by the village. However, a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office early Tuesday morning rendered the option of a unilateral withdrawal from the town as "totally unlikely."