Graffiti image of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Israeli army special forces planning to kill the head of Hezbollah during the festival of Ashoura ceremonies two weeks ago, called off the assassination bid due to logistical constraints, according to Israel’s Ch. 2 News, quoting Dutch media.

The plan, according to Palestinian media quoting Holland’s De Telegraaf, was to assassinate Hassan Nasrallah in a pinpoint missile attack during a speech in a suburbs of Beirut, in order to make it look like a local explosion.

There has been no official Israeli comment on the report.

A European source quoted suggested that the Israeli army’s elite Sayeret Matkal unit was involved in the planned operation during the bloody Shia Ashoura ceremonies in which throngs of Muslim worshipers slash and scourge themselves.

Heavy security and bystanders at the public venue prevented the hit, according to the report, due to Israel’s policy of minimizing collateral damage as much as possible.

During the speech at the ceremony, the terrorist organization leader said that his organization’s involvement in Syria was to prevent “Zionist hegemony” in the region, and, were Israel to intervene, claimed that Hezbollah has the ability to strike any target in the Jewish state.

“We need to open our eyes on Israel,” Nasrallah said in a speech broadcast on Hezbollah’s television channel, Al-Manar. “We are fully prepared in southern Lebanon despite the presence of our fighters in Syria, and we have the ability to strike anywhere in Israel.”

“Israel’s threats of another war on Lebanon do not stem from its power because it has lost hope and is concerned,” Nasrallah said in a televised address to hundreds of thousands of Shiites gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs following the traditional march to mark the Ashura holiday.

On the contrary, “the resistance is a real threat to Israel,” he said, according to a report on the Naharnet website.

Demanding that the Arab League firmly stand athwart what he said was “the Israeli assault on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the building of settlements,” the terrorist chieftain alleged that “Israel takes advantage of the upheavals in the Arab world to achieve its goals.”

Israeli officials say Operation Protective Edge and other IDF measures using the Iron Dome defensive anti-missile system are only practice for the next conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.