Israel warns of a ‘harsh response’ to the rocket attacks in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12.
The Israeli military says it launched air raids on areas across Lebanon as its political and military leaders discuss a response to a deadly attack on a football field in the occupied Golan Heights.
The military said early on Sunday that its jets bombed weapons depots and infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, in Shabriha and Burj el-Shemali near the southern city of Tyre, and the villages of Kafr Lila, Rab al-Thalathine, Khiam and Tayr Harfa.
Israel’s foreign ministry said on Sunday that Hezbollah had “crossed all red lines” with a rocket strike that killed 12 youngsters in the occupied Golan Heights.
“Saturday’s massacre constitutes the crossing of all red lines by Hezbollah. This is not an army fighting another army, rather it is a terrorist organisation deliberately shooting at civilians,” the ministry said in a statement.
Hezbollah has “categorically denied” responsibility for the deadly attack. There have been unconfirmed claims that a failed Israeli interceptor missile may have caused the incident.
The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday warned Israel against any “new adventure concerning Lebanon” using the Majdal Shams incident as an “excuse”.
“After 10 months of mass killing in the Gaza Strip and mass murder of Palestinian children and women, the apartheid Israeli regime is trying to distract public opinion and global attention from its wide-ranging crimes in Palestine using a fabricated scenario,” spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement, adding that Israel will be responsible for any moves that will further destabilise the region.
‘A tipping point’
Reporting from Beirut in Lebanon, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the latest Israeli attacks were a message to Hezbollah, but not the response it has promised.
“What we witnessed overnight was really normal activity, something that we have seen in the past 10 months since Hezbollah opened up a front in southern Lebanon to help the people of Gaza,” she said.
According to Khodr, the Israeli response and whether it would hit military or civilian targets could signal a “tipping point” that will determine the trajectory of the border conflict that started on October 8.
The Israeli security cabinet is expected to have a meeting later on Sunday to decide on a response to the rocket attack on a football field in Majdal Shams town in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday that killed at least 12 people.
In a video message from the site of the attack on Sunday morning, Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi reiterated the claim that an Iranian-made Falaq rocket – which has been employed by Hezbollah since the start of border fighting last October – carrying 53kg (116 pounds) warhead hit the football field.
“This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever fires such a rocket into an urban area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children,” he said.
Halevi added that the Israeli military is “increasing our readiness for the next stage of fighting in the north” as it keeps attacking the Gaza Strip to deadly effect.
He and other commanders met Druze leaders and community members in the area.
The United Nations, the United States and the European Union condemned the attack. The UN and the EU urged all parties to exercise “restraint” to prevent an all-out war, with the 27-member bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell calling for an “independent international investigation”.
More than 350 civilians have been killed as a result of repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the start of the war on Gaza. More than 20 Israelis have killed in attacks originating from Lebanon.