A third war with Lebanon has become inevitable, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday, adding that Hezbollah’s recent attack on the state has changed the rules of the game.
"A fourth operation in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, just as a third Lebanon war is inevitable," Lieberman told Ynet news, the English-language website of Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, in an interview.
"There's no doubt the rules of the game have been changed, what Hezbollah forced upon us. We don't respond, but rather decide to contain this incident. I think that's completely unreasonable,” Lieberman said. “Hezbollah is bolder, more determined, more provocative.”
Lieberman called for a “harsh and disproportionate” response after Hezbollah attacked an Israeli patrol in the occupied Shebaa Farms last week, killing two soldiers and wounding seven others.
The blast was revenge for an Israeli strike on a convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra in the Golan Heights last month, in which six Hezbollah members and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander were killed.
Israel responded to the Shebaa Farms attack by shelling villages in south Lebanon, causing no casualties for Hezbollah but killing a Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper.
The Soviet-born Israeli politician also insisted that another war on Gaza was on the horizon, saying Hamas was already rebuilding its military capacities.
"Don't let them tell us stories about how Hamas is begging and they're on their knees. We saw 10 rockets being fired at the sea last week. We see every week how they're rebuilding [their arsenal]," he said.
