The flag of Hezbollah flies in Syria. Photo: Hezbollah Flag/Wikimedia Commons.

European diplomats have warned Lebanese authorities that Israel will react harshly to any attack by Hezbollah to avenge the death of arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar who was assassinated last week, Lebanon’s Naharnet reported, citing Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas. 

According to the report, the diplomats categorized Israel’s threat to respond to any such action as “very serious.”

The Europeans stressed to their Lebanese counterparts that it mattered little to Israel whether a Hezbollah attack targeted Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, the Shebaa Farms (Har Dov) or any other location. Israel would retaliate anyway, they stressed.

They emphasized that Israel’s state of general military mobilization is currently much more sensitive than it was prior to the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government appears more willing to wage a major war in Lebanon in the face of a provocation by Hezbollah.

Since the assassination of Samir Kuntar last week in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, widely attributed to Israel, Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has issued repeated threats against the Jewish state, promising retaliation.