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An Israeli strike on a group of senior Hizbollah and Iranian officers could lead to an escalation on Israel's northern border, but for now seems to have wiped out a significant part of the Lebanese movement's military command.
On Monday night, reports began to emerge that some northern IDF units had forbidden soldiers from taking leave, and on Tuesday the Israeli security cabinet convened a special meeting to discuss the situation along the border with Lebanon.
While Israel has not officially taken responsibility for the attack, Hizbollah and the Syrian government were quick to blame the IDF, and senior Israeli officials did not deny that it was behind the strike.
The operation was reportedly carried out by a force that included Apache attack helicopters and drones. It took place on Sunday afternoon over the Syrian-held part of the Golan Heights near the border town of Kuneitra.
A convoy of vehicles carrying Hizbollah commanders, as well as officers of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Syrian army commanders, was ambushed from the air using anti-tank missiles.
Between six and nine men were killed in the strike, according to some reports. Hizbollah confirmed that among the dead was Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Imad Mughniyeh, the movement's military operations chief who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008, reportedly by Israel. Mughniyeh junior, a rising star in Hizbollah, was in command of Hizbollah's covert operations on the Golan and worked closely with the Iranians and Syrian.
Another senior commander killed in the attack was Iranian general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi. Allahdadi, who previously oversaw Iranian forces in the country's Yazd province, had reportedly been reassigned to support Shiite militias in Syria.
Also reportedly killed was Abu Ali Tabtabai, commander of Hizbollah's special forces; and Muhammed Issa, who was in overall charge of the movement's operations in Syria, where it has been propping up the Assad regime throughout the civil war.
It is unclear whether the strike specifically targeted these men or whether the aim had been to attack a convoy transferring high-value weapons to Lebanon, as was the case in previous strikes attributed to Israel. However, the timing, location and method used indicate the former, and intelligence sources claim that the men killed in the attack were involved in planning major terror attacks on Israeli territory.
In a radio interview on Sunday evening, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said: "Whenever things happen in the region we are of course blamed, and I have no interest in commenting."
He added that if the reports were true, Hizbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah "should be the one explaining" what his men were doing on the Golan.
Nasrallah has yet to respond himself to the strike. Last Thursday in a speech to his followers, he threatened that the movement had "made all necessary preparations for a future war with Israel" and that "we will provide an answer for every attack against Syria". He said that Hizbollah had new missiles with longer ranges and that in a future conflict they would act "deep" within Israel.
Over the last few years, Hizbollah has come under increasing pressure within Lebanon over its involvement in Syria, where it has lost hundreds of fighters and provoked rebel groups who have carried out devastating attacks on Shia areas within Lebanon.
With its resources stretched, Hizbollah is unlikely to retaliate against Israel immediately, but is more likely to seek an opportunity to attack Israeli assets abroad.
