Israeli defense officials have warned that Iran is planning to order its proxies to fire missiles at northern Israel in retaliation for recent airstrikes in Syria attributed to Israel that killed Iranian personnel, The Times of Israel reported on Sunday.
All of Israel's nightly news broadcasts said that military and intelligence agencies are aware of Iranian preparations to have Hezbollah or other Shiite terrorist groups launch guided missiles at targets in Israel.
Tehran is apparently interested in striking military targets, and not civilian ones, in the belief that this type of retaliation will avoid full-fledged war with Israel.
Israel is reportedly trying to prevent such an attack and has warned that it will hit all Iranian targets in Syria if Tehran does strike at Israeli territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to Moscow on Wednesday in an effort to have Russia put pressure on Iran to avoid such an escalation.
Tensions have risen dramatically between Jerusalem and Tehran after the infiltration of an armed Iranian drone into northern Israel in February, which was followed by reported Israeli air strikes against Iranian positions in Syria, according to The Jerusalem Post.
Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu told his weekly cabinet meeting that Israel is "prepared for every scenario. We don't want confrontation, but if there needs to be one, it is better now than later," according to The Times of Israel.
The prime minister emphasized that "In recent months, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards transferred to Syria advanced weaponry in order to attack us both on the battlefield and the home front, including weaponized UAVs, ground-to-ground missiles and Iranian anti-aircraft batteries that would threaten air force jets."