The Israeli defense minister vowed on Sunday to strike “with force to the enemy“after a bombing blamed on the Hezbollah Lebanese who left 12 dead the day before in the annexed Golan Heightsraising fears of a regional conflagration stemming from the conflict in Gaza.
Israel will hit “with force to the enemy“, he declared Yoav Gallant from Majdal Shams the city where the bombing took place, according to a statement from the ministry spokesman.
According to Israel, a rocket fired from Lebanon caused the death of 12 young people between 10 and 16 years old while they were playing on a football field in this town, in the Golan Heights The attack also left around 30 people injured.
Iran which supports the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah warned that an Israeli retaliatory attack on Lebanon would have “unforeseeable consequences” in the area, stage from the October 7 of a war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Any action (…) by the Zionist regime may aggravate instability, insecurity and war in the region.“warned the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanani.
Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz blamed the attack on Hezbollah and said on Sunday that the Lebanese Islamist movement had crossed “all red lines” when shooting “deliberately against civilians”.
“The projectile that killed our children was an Iranian rocket, and Hezbollah is the only terrorist organization that has them in its arsenal.“the Israeli ministry added.
Israel said the projectile was a Iranian Falaq-type rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead.
The Lebanese group, an ally of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza denied being behind the fatal shooting. Since October 8, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have exchanged fire almost daily on the border between the two countries.
Hezbollah will pay a “heavy price”
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday that Hezbollah will pay “a high price“for the attack, which came after the death in Lebanon of four fighters from the Islamist movement in an Israeli bombing in the south of the country.
Hezbollah on Saturday admitted firing rockets at military positions in the Golan Heights but denied being behind the attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams, a town of about 11,000 inhabitants.
Israel will not leave “This deadly attack without response“Netanyahu insisted, according to a statement from his office. The leader will chair a meeting of the security cabinet after his return from the United States.
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken said Sunday from Tokyo that “all indications” show that the rocket was fired by Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Golan Heights is a strategic region at the crossroads of three countries (Syria, Lebanon, Israel) and largely conquered by Israel during the 1967 Israeli-Arab War.
Israel annexed two-thirds of this territory in 1981, but the community never recognized this annexation.
Thousands of people attended the funerals of those killed in the bombing on Sunday.
Its about “Deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since October 7“, the Israeli military spokesman said, Daniel Hagari referring to the date of the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
Meeting in Rome
The HIM warned against a “major conflagration” in the region and the European Union (EU) called for a “independent international investigation” of the attack. The bombing was condemned by France, Germany, United Kingdom y Swiss.
Syria, in turn, denounced the “lies” and the “false accusations“Israel against Hezbollah.
Despite calls for calm in the region and a ceasefire in Gaza, fighting continues unabated in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The war broke out when Islamist commandos killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 251 in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
The Israeli military estimates that 111 people remain captive in Gaza, 39 of whom are believed to have died.
In response, Israel launched an offensive that has already killed at least 39,324 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
The bombings were only halted during a week-long truce in November, but negotiations for a ceasefire and the release of hostages have since failed.
A new meeting will take place on Sunday in Rome between representatives of the mediating countries — Egypt, USA and Qatar — and the head of Israeli intelligence.