Israeli officials told the U.S. that Hezbollah would pay a 'disproportionate price' if its attack hits civilians: Report

Senior Israel Defense Forces and Israeli Defense Ministry officials told their Pentagon and CENTCOM counterparts that the Hezbollah terrorist organization would pay a "disproportionate price" if its retaliatory strike hits civilians.

An exclusive report by Axios detailed that Israel is preparing for "imminent" attacks from Iran and Hezbollah over the recent eliminations of senior officials of the Lebanese terrorist organization and Hamas in Beirut and Tehran, respectively.

"In the internal discussions with the U.S., Israel stressed that the cost of another Hezbollah mishap would be heavy and that Hezbollah would pay a disproportionate price if it harmed civilians as part of its retaliation," a senior Israeli official told Axios.

The news comes against a backdrop where Israeli officials claim they do not want an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. However, they draw a clear line defining the circumstances under which Israeli forces would be forced to escalate the conflict, taking the risk of a war that, for the moment, is undesirable to both the United States and Israel.

According to the report, Israeli officials' concern comes after a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who on Tuesday said that the Iranian-backed group will retaliate for the assassination of Fuad Shukr in Beirut last week.

Ahead of the speech, the editor-in-chief of the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Ibrahim al-Amin, published a front-page article claiming that Hezbollah is likely to attack Tel Aviv as part of its response. A situation that could put civilians at risk given the low effectiveness and accuracy of the terrorist group's missiles, according to Israeli officials.

"The newspaper is affiliated with Hezbollah and Al-Amin is known to be close to Nasrallah," Axios reported. "He wrote that Hezbollah has a lot of maneuvering space regarding its response because Lebanese civilians were killed during Shukr's assassination in southern Beirut."

Israeli officials warned their U.S. counterparts that their interpretation of the article is that the target of Hezbollah's response could be the IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv, Mossad headquarters or other key intelligence bases in north Tel Aviv.

If the analysis is accurate, officials believe there could be a repeat of the tragedy in the Golan Heights village of Majdal Shams last month, when Hezbollah, according to Israeli officials, attempted to strike a military base but failed and hit a soccer field, where 12 children were killed.