Israel has no interest in full-scale war after 'incidents' in Lebanon, Syria borders —envoy

Israel has no interest in entering a full-scale war with its neighbors after attacks came supposedly from terrorist groups at its borders near Lebanon and Syria, one of its envoys said on Wednesday.

Interviewed on GMA News Integrated News’ Unang Balita, Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss said Israel is still preparing in case a full-scale war with its neighbors will happen.

“We are sending very clear messages to our neighbors. Not to escalate the situation on their borders. There is no interest and Israel would not want to enter into full-scale war with our neighbors,” he said.

“However, we are preparing in case this will happen. We have readied troops of reservists and also [Israel Defense Forces]...we are preparing in all fronts,” he added.

According to a Reuters report, security sources said that a salvo of rockets was fired on Tuesday from southern Lebanon towards Israel.

One security source said the bombardment was carried out by Palestinian factions. A second source said Israeli shelling was hitting the southern area from which the rockets were launched.

The Israeli military said it was responding with artillery fire to launches coming from Lebanese territory.

According to a report on Unang Balita on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it also retaliated after an explosion coming from Syria hit Israel territory. A Reuters report said the rockets came from a group of Palestinians.

“What happened last night was we had some attacks from Syria offshooting rockets into Israel. However, it is not a full-scale attack. It is an incident,” Fluss said.

“We had also an incident from the border of Lebanon. Israel has retaliated back,” he added.

The "incidents" occurred amid attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas in Israel, where, Fluss said, over 1,000 Israelis were already killed.

“We have to remember that Israel is a country, which is suffering from threats of terrorism, not only from Hamas. In the northern border in southern Lebanon, we have the Hezbollah which is controlling the entire area, not the Lebanese army, but the Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a terror organization which is also for the destruction of the state of Israel. We have also some groups of terrorism and militaries in Syria,” he said.

On Saturday, Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years, firing rockets and deploying gunmen to several Israeli towns.

A “state of war alert” was issued by Israel’s Home Front Command thereafter.

Israel said the Iran-backed group had declared war as its army confirmed fighting with militants in several Israeli towns and military bases near Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate.

"Our enemy will pay a price the type of which it has never known…We are in a war and we will win it,” Netanyahu said. —KG, GMA Integrated News