Israel on full alert: Could retaliation come from Syria, Yemen or abroad?

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

As the year draws to a close, Israel is intensifying its coordination with the United States on the files of Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza. On this basis, Israel will send its army chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, to Washington next week to meet with U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.

The meeting aims to coordinate any security action on the three fronts, including Lebanon, as Tel Aviv argues there has been insufficient progress in dismantling Hezbollah’s weapons. 

The visit comes just hours after U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus holds talks in Israel, amid expectations that the end of the month could mark a turning point in the security situation.

Israel’s security establishment has not hidden its concern over the possibility of a Hezbollah response to the assassination of Haytham Tabtabai. Officials have discussed multiple scenarios, at times conflicting.

One option they anticipate is an attack launched from Syria by Islamist groups close to Hezbollah, which Israel attacked in Beit Jinn last week.

Another possibility is an operation carried out from Yemen by the Houthis in retaliation for Tabtabai, who trained Houthi fighters.

A third scenario involves an operation by Iran and Hezbollah targeting Israeli or Jewish sites abroad.

Because Israel views this third scenario as the most challenging — given the difficulty of responding from inside Lebanon — its security apparatus has been placed on full alert.