Five years ago, when Hezbollah's military commander Imad Mughniyah was assassinated in Damascus, fingers were quickly pointed toward Israel. The group's secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, promised to launch an open war on Israel to avenge his slain comrade. Everyone was worried the blood of the most wanted Hezbollah member might ignite a regional conflict. This never happened, and borders separating Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerillas, the usual arena for their hot skirmishes and battles, preserved its calmness. Both chose to fight another kind of war, a worldwide shadow war.

Before the assassination of Imad Mughniyah there were suggestions that he was the head of Hezbollah's foreign operations apparatus. He was accused of perpetuating attacks on Israeli and American interests in Argentine, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus and other countries, what qualified him to top the FBI most-wanted list till September 11, 2011.

After his death, Israel raised the warning level to red in all its embassies and interests around the globe. A source close to Hezbollah said on condition of anonymity, "Israel knows well that Imad Mughniyah himself planned his revenge before being killed."

Several attacks on Israeli interests in the past half decade were blamed on Hezbollah. The latest was the one that killed six Israelis in Burgas, Bulgaria, where a clear indictment by Sofia's prosecutors accused the Lebanese Islamist organization of perpetuating the attack. Days after the indictment, a Lebanese Swedish national, Hossam Taleb Yacoub, admitted that he was an operative of the group, acting as a courier in Europe and staking out locations frequented by Israeli tourists in Limassol, Cyprus.