Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV ― The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has been identified as directing rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel.

Officials said Hizbullah was organizing non-Shi’ite squads to fire rockets into northern Israel. They said the latest series of rocket attacks were launched from areas of southern Lebanon controlled by the Iranian proxy.

“What is happening in Lebanon is that Hizbullah is stationing thousands of missiles and rockets in apartments, in the heart of the civilian population, and is thus perpetrating two war crimes simultaneously,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “It is organizing the firing at civilians, just as it did today, and it is hiding behind civilians as human shields.”

On Dec. 29, five rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel. The rockets did not result in casualties, and the Israel Army responded with artillery shelling into southern Lebanon.

“Launching rockets from Lebanon into Israel jeopardizes thousands of civilian lives in the north, a reality no sovereign state would accept,” the Israeli military said. “The Israel Defense Forces maintain the right to self defense and will continue to operate accordingly.”

Netanyahu’s assertion was not openly supported by Israel’s defense
minister. Instead, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon raised the prospect that
Al Qaida-aligned militias were responsible for the rocket strikes in an
attempt to spark a war between Israel and Hizbullah.

“There are elements attempting to drag Israel into the conflict [with
Syrian President Bashar Assad],” Ya’alon said.

But Israeli sources said Ya’alon, pressed by the United States, has
sought to reduce tension amid repeated rocket strikes from Lebanon. They
said Iran approved the Hizbullah-directed attacks in wake of the
assassination of several commanders in December 2013. Another senior
commander who served in Syria was buried on Jan. 1.

“We hold the Lebanese government responsible for this development,”
Netanyahu said. “We also know that Iran, of course, is behind this arming by
Hizbullah.”

  Benjamin Netanyahu, hiding munitions in civilian buildings, Israel charges Hizbullah rocket attacks on its civilians coming from civilian areas in Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces, Moshe Ya’alon