Tel Aviv/Beirut, July 29, (dpa/GNA) – The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, Israel would respond to the “massacre” of young people and children in a Druze town near the Lebanese border, blaming Tehran for the attack, while also warning of a “last chance” for diplomacy.
At least 12 people were killed in the missile strike, that hit a football field in the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.
Majdal Shams is mainly inhabited by Druze, an Arabic-speaking religious community.
Israel said Iran-backed Hezbollah had carried out the attack, and vowed to retaliate.
The Shiite militia had denied having had anything to do with it.
The Israeli chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, said late on Saturday during a visit to the football field that the impact, was caused by an Iranian missile, equipped with a warhead weighing 53 kilograms.
UN representatives have called on both sides “to exercise maximum restraint” as fears grow that the strike could fuel an all-out war in the region.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, condemned the attack, but added that London was “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation and destabilisation.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, called for “cool heads,” saying that “far too many people have already died in this conflict” in a post on X.
In Washington, the White House blamed Hezbollah for the “horrific” rocket fire on Israel, but also said it was seeking a “diplomatic solution” to the crisis.
“Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah,” said a statement from President Joe Biden’s National Security Council.
“The rocket that murdered our boys and girls was an Iranian rocket and Hezbollah is the only terror organization which has those in its arsenal,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein.
“Israel will exercise its right and duty to act in self-defence, and will respond to the massacre … The world must now place full responsibility on Iran and its terrorist proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.”
“The only way that the world can prevent a full-scale war which would be devastating also to Lebanon, is by forcing Hezbollah to implement Security Council Resolution 1701.”
This resolution calls on Hezbollah to withdraw beyond the Litani River, some 30 kilometres from the border between Israel and Lebanon.
“Now is the very last minute to do so diplomatically,” Marmorstein warned.
Lebanon reports series of Israeli strikes
Israel launched a series of strikes early Sunday into southern Lebanon in retaliation, Lebanon’s official news agency NNA reported.
However, the initial response seemed to stop short of the major escalation feared by many.
An Israeli strike targeted a house in the town of Burj al-Shemali near Tyre, resulting in injuries among residents and significant damage, it added.
Israeli warplanes conducted multiple strikes in the city of Tyre, located in southern Lebanon, causing no casualties, NNA reported.
Additionally, NNA reported that an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a house some 70 kilometres from the capital Beirut, causing material damage.
Earlier, the Israeli air force said it had attacked several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight.
Among the targets were weapons depots as well as combat infrastructure, the Israeli army said on Telegram on Sunday, publishing video footage said to show the overnight attacks.
Israel and the Hamas-allied Hezbollah have exchanged fire almost daily since the start of the Gaza war on October 7 last year.
The intensity of these clashes in northern Israel and southern Lebanon has recently increased significantly. There have been fatalities on both sides, raising fears that the conflict could spread wider in the region.
Israel conquered the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau of strategic importance, in 1967 and annexed the area in 1981, although it is considered Syrian territory occupied by Israel under international law.
Lebanon’s top diplomat weighs in
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said he does not believe that Hezbollah intentionally carried out an attack on Majdal Shams – and suggested that others could also be to blame.
He said the strike could have been carried out by other organizations or an “Israeli mistake or a Hezbollah mistake,” Lebanon’s state news agency NNA quoted him as saying on Sunday.
He warned that a major Israeli attack on Lebanon could trigger a regional war.
Washington and independent experts have said it is unlikely that the rocket that landed in Majdal Shams came from Isreali anti-missile fire.
“From what we saw, it was a big explosion. It is a big warhead, and a number of people were killed. Usually in the Iron Dome, the warhead is smaller than this,” Riad Kahwaji, of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said.
He told dpa there was no such previous incident involving Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile shield that resulted in so many deaths.
GNA