Smoke rises above Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from northern Israel.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant yesterday vowed to “hit the enemy hard” after rocket fire from Lebanon killed 12 young people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and again raised fears that the war in Gaza will spread.
Iran warned Israel any new military “adventures” in Lebanon could lead to “unforeseen consequences”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the rocket fire and called on all parties to “exercise maximum restraint”.
Israel’s army called it “the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians” since October 7.
Israel blamed Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement for firing a Falaq-1 Iranian rocket but the Iran-backed group - which has regularly targeted Israeli military positions - said it had “no connection” to the incident.
It said, however, that it had fired one such rocket on Saturday toward an Israeli military target in the Golan.
The rocket fire in Majdal Shams, whose population are Arabic-speaking Druze, prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return early from the United States. Upon arrival he went immediately into a security cabinet meeting, his office said.
He said “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price” for the attack, “a price it has not paid before.”
The Israeli foreign ministry said Hezbollah had “crossed all red lines”.
In expectation of Israel’s retaliation, Hezbollah evacuated several positions close to the border and in eastern Lebanon, a source close to the group said.
An Israeli drone fired two missiles at Taraiyya village in eastern Lebanon, destroying a hangar and a home without causing casualties.
The rocket strike on Majdal Shams hit a football pitch and killed young people who local authorities said were aged 10-16. Israeli police said an 11-year-old boy was still missing. Thousands of residents crowded the town’s streets in a tearful funeral ceremony for many of the dead.
The White House meanwhile said the rocket launch was “conducted by Lebanese Hezbollah”, adding that “it was their rocket and launched from an area they control”.
The UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) chief Aroldo Lazaro said in a joint statement that intensifying exchanges of fire “could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief”.
Britain condemned the attack, as did Germany, whose foreign ministry urged “cool heads”.
