Tensions defused, not eliminated

The calm across the northern sector following the elimination of the terrorist cell that fired rockets at the Golan Heights and the Galilee area last week most likely indicates that this event is behind us, but make no mistake -- this is a temporary calm and Iran's attempt to use its local proxies to attack Israel will continue.

Iran chose an Islamic Jihad cell to carry out the attack by default, and only after its two first choices -- a cell formed by arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar and terrorist infrastructure planned by Hezbollah operative Jihad Mughniyeh -- proved partially successful.

Information available suggests that the Islamic Jihad terrorist, all of them Palestinians, were recruited from among the Palestinian refugee camps in Damascus and sent to the border. A similar cell fired rockets at Israel during last summer's Operation Protective Edge, also on orders from Iran.

The man heading the Iranian efforts in Syria is believed to be Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestinian department in the Quds Force, the special forces unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, while Iran's headhunter, the man who recruited the cell that staged Thursday's attack, is believed to be Akram Ajuri, a senior Islamic Jihad leader in Damascus.

The cell that was eliminated fired two rockets at the border-adjacent Kibbutz Ein Zivan a few days before Thursday's attack, but the IDF was unable to detect its location and stop them it striking again. The cell's members were located only on Friday, and four of them were killed in an Israeli Air Force strike on their car.

It is unlikely that last week's attack could have taken place without the authorization of high-ranking Syrian military officials, in this case the commanders of the divisions deployed in the Syrian Golan Heights. This is why the IAF's response was unusually wide-ranging, striking 14 targets belonging to the divisions that allowed the terrorists to reach the border and perpetrate the attack from areas controlled by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

While Syrian media reports downplayed the strike and its results, Israel hopes it was able to send a clear message that would guarantee peace and quiet on the Israel-Syria border in the near future -- the end of the summer vacation and the High Holidays -- but it is clear that the northern border has not seen its last rocket attack.

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