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IDF: Iranian Revolutionary Guards behind Rocket Attacks into Northern Israel

The Israel Defense Forces identified an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – Qods Force general as being responsible for yesterday’s rocket attacks into northern Israel and, in retaliation, launched a series of raids against Syrian military targets, The Times of Israel reported today.

According to a senior Israeli security official, Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestinian Division of the Iranian al-Quds Force planned the attack. It was carried out by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terror group that operates mostly out of the Gaza Strip, but whose headquarters are in Damascus. The Islamic Jihad has denied its involvement. …

Israel held the Syrian government responsible for the attacks, retaliating with its largest assault on Syrian territory in decades. The IDF fired artillery shells and launched airstrikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces, hitting 14 military posts in the Syrian Golan Heights, the defense official said. …

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a number of Syrian soldiers had been injured or killed. This claim was disputed by official Syrian television, which said there were no fatalities.

Nadav Pollak, a senior researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs, said that the use of rockets rather than mortars was the Qods Force’s way of making sure that Israel knew who attacked and that it was deliberate.

On Twitter, Israel’s defense minister Moshe Ya’alon tied the escalation to the recently concluded nuclear agreement with Iran.

In January, Hezbollah commander Jihad Mughniyeh and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi were killed in an apparent Israeli airstrike on their convoy. Another Hezbollah operative who was killed in the attack, Abu Ali Tabatabai, was believed to be in charge of planning attacks on northern Israel. Phillip Smyth, currently an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote at the time that the presence of the convoy in the Golan reflected an effort by Iran and its proxy Hezbollah “to militarily encircle the Israelis.” In addition to exploiting Syrian territory to confront Israel in the north, Iran was also looking to boost Hamas along Israel’s southern border.

In January, Israel reportedly hit a convoy carrying high-ranking Hezbollah and Iranian military officials, killing 12 operatives. A Hezbollah cross-border attack killed two IDF soldiers patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border a week and a half later.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last week that the nuclear deal presented Iran and its allies a “historic opportunity” to confront Israel. Hezbollah boasted in May that it had built up its military infrastructure to fight Israel.

[Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO ]