Israel convened a meeting of its security cabinet on Sunday to react to a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 teenagers and children, and for which Israel and the United States blamed the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-occupied territory since an October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas sparked a war in Gaza. The conflict has spread to multiple fronts and risks spiraling into a wider regional conflict.
Israeli warplanes attacked targets in southern Lebanon earlier in the day, but a stronger response could come after a security meeting called in Tel Aviv by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he returns from a visit to Washington.
Israel has vowed to retaliate against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The White House also blamed Hezbollah for the Majdal Shams attack on Sunday. “The attack was carried out by Lebanese Hezbollah. It was their rocket and launched from an area under their control,” the statement said.
The United States said Washington had been in discussions with its Israeli and Lebanese counterparts since Saturday’s attack. It condemned the attack as “appalling” and said it was working on a diplomatic solution.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington stands with Israel’s right to self-defense but does not want to further escalate the conflict, which has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah along the border.
Britain expressed concern about further escalation, while Egypt said the attack could escalate into “a wider regional war”.
On the ground, thousands gathered for the funeral in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, the region seized from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed by Israel with no recognition by most countries.
People of the Druze religion, a mix of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, make up more than half of the Golan Heights’ 40,000 population. Large crowds of mourners, many wearing traditional white and red Druze headwear, surrounded the coffins as they were carried through the village.
“A huge tragedy, a dark day, has come for Majdal Shams,” Dolan Abu Saleh, head of the Majdal Shams local council, said in comments broadcast on Israeli television.
Hezbollah initially announced that it had fired rockets at Israeli military sites in the Golan Heights, but said it had “absolutely nothing to do” with the attack on Majdal Shams.
Israel said the rocket was made in Iran
However, Israel said the rocket was an Iranian-made missile fired from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, and blamed the attack directly on Iran-backed Hezbollah.
It was not immediately clear whether the children and teenagers killed in the attack were Israeli citizens, but Israeli officials have vowed to retaliate.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said, “The rocket that killed our boys and girls was an Iranian rocket and Hezbollah is the only terrorist organization that has these rockets.”
Hezbollah is on high alert and has evacuated some key sites in Lebanon’s south and eastern Bekaa Valley in anticipation of an Israeli attack, two security sources told Reuters.
Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines said it was delaying the arrival of some flights from Sunday night to Monday morning, though it did not give a reason.
In the southern port city of Tyre, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border, beachgoers were still heading to the coast. “There is fear that Israel will react, but people are living their lives as normal,” said Ali Husseini, manager of a beachside business in Tyre.
Israeli forces have been exchanging fire with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon for months, but both sides appear to be avoiding an escalation that could lead to a full-blown war that could potentially involve other powers including the United States and Iran.
However, Saturday’s attack threatens to make the standoff even more dangerous. UN officials urged both sides to exercise maximum restraint and warned that if the standoff escalates “the entire region could be hit by an incredible catastrophe.”
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib told Reuters that Lebanon had urged the US to call on Israel to exercise restraint. Bou Habib said the US had also asked the Lebanese government to convey a message of restraint to Hezbollah.
fear of full-blown war
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday warned Israel against any new adventure in Lebanon.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry said it held Israel “fully responsible for this dangerous escalation in the region” and said its accusations against Hezbollah were false.
Two diplomats focused on Lebanon said all efforts were needed now to avoid a full-blown war.
The conflict has forced thousands of people to flee their homes in both Lebanon and Israel. Israeli strikes have killed about 350 Hezbollah fighters and more than 100 civilians in Lebanon, including doctors, children and journalists.
The Israeli military said after Saturday’s attack that the number of civilians killed in Hezbollah attacks since October had risen to 23, including at least 17 soldiers.
Hezbollah is the most powerful in a network of Iran-backed groups in the Middle East and opened a second front against Israel shortly after Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Both Iraqi groups and Yemen’s Houthis have fired on Israel, which earlier this month attacked the Red Sea port of Hodeidah in retaliation for an attack on Tel Aviv that killed one person. Hamas has also launched rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanon, as has Lebanese Sunni group Jamaah Islamiyah.
Druze communities live on both sides of the line between southern Lebanon and northern Israel, as well as in the Golan Heights and Syria. While some serve in the Israeli military and identify with Israel, many feel marginalized in Israel and some even reject Israeli citizenship.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
