BEIRUT: Israel is ready for possible attacks by Hezbollah aimed at distracting the world from events in Syria, said Israel’s foreign minister, as the Lebanese Army accused Israel of violating the border by setting up a barbed wire fence.“Israel is ready for any scenario in which Hezbollah in Lebanon carries out provocative operations on the Lebanese border with the aim of diverting attention from the daily massacres taking place in Syria,” Avigdor Lieberman told the U.N. Security Council Thursday.

“We hope that nothing like that would happen, but if it does, Israel will be ready for it,” he added.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of aiding President Bashar Assad in his crackdown on anti-government protesters. And whereas Israel has long alleged that Syria functions as a conduit for the passage of Iranian arms to Hezbollah, it has recently expressed concern that even more sophisticated weapons might fall into the hands of Hezbollah should the government of Assad fall.

Lieberman briefed the 15 Security Council ambassadors on the Middle East peace talks and the growing confrontation with Iran in a meeting at a New York hotel.

He called on the Security Council to act on statements by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who have made calls “to wipe Israel off the map,” the Israeli mission said.

Separately, the Lebanese Army said Israel violated the border by setting up a barbed wire fence in a border area near the village of Adaysseh.

A Lebanese Army communique called the Israeli act a “new violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”

It said Israeli troops erected a 75-meter long barbed wire fence in a “reserved” area near Adaysseh between 2:50 a.m. and 3:52 a.m. Thursday.

“Army units deployed in the region took the necessary measures,” the communique said, adding that the issue has been resolved via the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

UNIFIL spokesman Neeraj Singh confirmed Thursday that the Israeli army had set up a barbed wire fence near Adaysseh.

“On the night of Feb. 7-8 in the ... area of Adaysseh Israeli troops laid concertina wire to mark the mine field after prior notification to UNIFIL,” Singh said in a statement.

“During this time UNIFIL troops were deployed in the area to ensure that there were no violations of the Blue Line,” the statement added.

Singh clarified to The Daily Star that Israeli troops “did cross the technical fence. But the Israeli technical fence is not the Blue Line and in this area there is a distance between the technical fence and the Blue Line.”

Security sources told The Daily Star Thursday that a group of Israeli troops had erected a barbed wire fence in a reserved area near Adaysseh and were conducting patrols.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 15 Israeli troops had entered some 75 meters into the area near Adaysseh, Marjayoun, and erected the fence.

Singh said that UNIFIL is aware of Lebanon’s territorial claims to this area.

“However, in the year 2000 both Lebanon and Israel undertook to respect the Blue Line as identified by the U.N. notwithstanding their respective reservations,” he said.

In August 2010, Adaysseh saw the deadliest clashes between Lebanese and Israeli troops in several years.