Israel is preparing for Iranian revenge .. Netanyahu praises the assassination of Soleimani and cuts off his visit to Greece

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the killing of Iran's Quds Force commander, Major General Qassim Soleimani, in a US raid in Iraq, and the security alert was raised in anticipation of Iranian reprisals.

Hours after the announcement of Soleimani's death in a raid at Baghdad airport early Friday, Netanyahu cut short his visit to Athens - in which he signed a gas transfer agreement with Greece and Cyprus - and returned to Israel.

In statements made upon his departure from Greece, Netanyahu praised the liquidation of the prominent Iranian military leader, saying that US President Donald Trump acted quickly, strongly and firmly by issuing an order to implement the operation that took place days after an attack on the American embassy in Baghdad, and Washington accused Tehran of masterminding it.

Netanyahu said that Soleimani bore responsibility for killing many innocent Americans, and that he had planned to carry out other offensive actions, adding that just as Israel has the right to defend itself, the United States also has the right to defend itself.

Last August, Netanyahu issued a warning to both General Soleimani and the Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, against responding to an Israeli attack with two drone planes, one of which exploded in the southern suburb of Beirut.

Tel Aviv has previously accused the commander of the Jerusalem Corps of planning attacks against it, starting from Syria, where the corps is stationed in support of the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Israeli alert
Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli security services announced lifting the state of security alert, and strengthening the guard at its embassies and all representations around the world for fear of reprisals after Soleimani's death.

The Minister of Defense, Naftali Bennett, announced that he will head later in the day an emergency meeting of army and security chiefs to assess the security situation following the killing of the Iranian general.

In a precautionary step, the occupation army closed Jabal Al-Sheikh this morning, but left life as normal in the rest of the border areas of the occupied Syrian Golan and on the border with Lebanon.

The Israelis did not mention specific threats, but they hinted, after assassinations similar to Soleimani's assassination, that there could be attacks from Lebanon and Syria by Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian groups.