Israel 'plants dummy decoy' soldiers on border with Lebanon after Hizbollah threats

Israel has positioned dummy decoys dressed as soldiers on the border with Lebanon, according to local reports, as the country prepares for strikes by Hizbollah.

Israel and Hizbollah, which last fought a war in 2006, are on high alert after Israel carried out a series of attacks on the group in Lebanon and neighbouring Syria and Hizbollah promised a retaliation.

Lebanese journalist Ali Shueib, who works for Hizbollah’s al-Manar TV station, tweeted photos of off-road army vehicles with what appeared to be a mannequin in the front seat.

“Stop the jokes,” he tweeted, saying that using these dummies only reveals “‘stupidity and foolishness’ because you have not learned that you are facing men that have the intelligence, professionalism, courage, and faith to defeat.”

Or Heller, an Israeli military correspondent for Channel 10 News, posted a close-up of the dummy taken from the other side of the vehicle, suggesting that Israel had placed it there in anticipation of a Hizbollah assault.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has been known to use mannequins, placing them in bunkers or sniper’s nests in an effort to trick its enemies into thinking they are manned by soldiers and leading them to reveal their position.

Hizbollah, which is backed by Iran, have been warning they intend to carry out “calculated strike” against Israel in the coming days, in revenge for an Israeli strike in Syria which killed two Hizbollah fighters and a drone attack which is reported to have targeted precision-missile technology over the weekend.

Sources close to the Shia movement had indicated to the Telegraph that the group would look to attack Israeli troops along the border and send drones into the country in a "like-for-like" retaliation for the drone attack.

Israel is fighting a shadow war with arch-foe Iran, targeting its proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and attempting to disturb the flow of weapons.

On its Twitter account on Thursday, the IDF went public with what it said were details about an extensive Iranian-sponsored project to provide Hizbollah with the means to produce precision-guided missiles.

It released the names of four Iranian Quds Forces officers it alleged to be training Hizbollah members in Lebanon.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said Tehran had in recent months increased the pace of the project such that it was "faster in terms of buildings, facilities, locations, conversion and manufacturing facilities, and it means more people, operatives involved in doing so".

"It is time for them (the Lebanese government) to understand their responsibility and understand the fact that what they are letting Hizbollah and Iran do on Lebanese soil is their responsibility," Lt Col. Conricus said.

Israel has said that it holds the Lebanese state responsible for Hizbollah’s actions since the movement now has MPs in parliament.

Lebanon on Wednesday opened fire on Israeli drones operating inside Lebanese airspace, after warning its neighbour it would defend its sovereignty.