Israeli president cuts short US trip after tensions with Hezbollah

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin cut short his trip to the United States and will returned to Israel this afternoon after two Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah missile attack on the border with Lebanon, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported a statement issued by Rivlin’s office yesterday saying: “President Rivlin has instructed his staff to work to shorten his stay in New York following the events in the north of Israel. The President will arrive back in Israel tomorrow afternoon, two days before he was due to return.”

On Sunday, Rivlin began a visit to the United States to speak at the United Nations special session in commemoration of the Holocaust and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Israeli army announced yesterday that two soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded in an alleged Hezbollah attack on an army convoy near the border with Lebanon.

The Hezbollah attack comes in response to an Israeli airstrike which led to the killing of six Hezbollah members on 18 January in the Syrian Golan Heights.