CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli security services, working with intelligence agencies abroad, recently thwarted at least two attempts to kidnap Israelis, the government revealed Monday.

Without specifying details of the attempted abductions, security officials acknowledged that the kidnapping plots were in the advanced stages.

Last month, Israel's Counterterrorism Bureau issued warnings to Israeli businessmen and tourists abroad to exercise caution in day-to-day activities in view of Hezbollah's threats to avenge the February assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, killed in Damascus by a bomb planted in his car.

Hezbollah holds Israel responsible for Mughniyeh's assassination.

On Friday, the terror group's deputy commander, Naim Kassem, justified reprisal for Mughniyeh's death.

"Revenge is a legitimate right," Kassem said in an interview on Hezbollah's satellite television station al Manar.

"Why is Israel allowed to murder and to assassinate and the world looks away? For everything there is a time, Allah willing. We won't get into details, but the Israelis will be surprised," he warned.

Mughniyeh, who was on the FBI's most-wanted list -- with a $25 million bounty on his head for a string of terror attacks around the world -- was Hezbollah's second-in-command, who served as the group's liaison with Iran.