Israel 'considering further air strikes on Syria'

Israel is said to be considering further attacks in Syria and Lebanon following the air strikes on a weapons convoy this week, and on Friday claimed "the entire axis of evil is coming apart".

Officials said that the risks of military action to prevent Hizbollah getting sophisticated weapons outweighed the threats of a response from either Syria or Iran.

A third battery of its Iron Dome protective missile system was moved up to the border with Lebanon to prepare for any retaliation from Hizbollah for Israel's reported attack on anti-aircraft missiles being supplied to the militant group by Syria.

Israeli jets resumed flights near the Syrian border yesterday, Lebanese government security officials said, and a well-connected analyst said that further cross-border strikes were likely.

Ephraim Kam, the deputy director of Israeli's Institute of National Security Studies, and a retired intelligence colonel, said that the risks posed by Iran-allied militants such as Hizbollah and Hamas getting their hands on parts of Syria's arsenal of chemical and advanced weaponry were considered far greater than the threat of retaliation.

"If tomorrow the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) sees the movement of this weaponry, it will and should strike again," he said. "This week's attack was a kind of warning: 'We are ready and prepared to do this'. Syria has warned that it might retaliate. Iran has said that attacking Syria is attacking Iran. But neither will respond. Although we have to be careful not to rule the possibility out all together, the last thing the Syrian regime needs is to enter a war with Israel when it is struggling to survive domestically."

Israel has refused formally or even informally to admit the attack on the convoy, on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. But its military was upbeat about the consequences, predicting that both Syria and Hizbollah were too weak to carry out their threats.

Maj Gen Eyal Ben Reuven, the deputy commander of Israel's northern command, said that, despite the Iron Dome redeployments, he believed Israel's enemies to its north were toothless.

"The likelihood of a response in the short term is very low," he said.

"The Syrians are weak, they are in distress. Hizbollah is in distress. The entire axis of evil is coming apart."

Syrian activists claim that as well as the convoy, a regime base north-west of Damascus was hit. Syrian state media said the target was a research centre in Jamraya, but activists said it was in fact a base for "non-conventional weapons".