By Nader Durgham – Middle East Eye
Fears of a wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah have reached their highest point in months following a deadly rocket strike on Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights.
The attack on a football field in the Syrian Druze village on Saturday killed at least 12 children, with several others seriously wounded.
Israeli and American officials said that Hezbollah was responsible for the attack. The Lebanese armed group has denied involvement.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaging in hostilities since 8 October, a day after the start of the war in Gaza.
Israel has killed 527 people in Lebanon since then, according to an AFP tally, including at least 104 civilians.
Around 22 soldiers and 24 civilians have been killed in northern Israel since fighting along the Lebanese border began, according to Israel’s army.
“Saturday’s massacre constitutes the crossing of all red lines by Hezbollah,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said following the attack. “This is not an army fighting another army, rather it is a terrorist organisation deliberately shooting at civilians.”
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Hezbollah would face consequences “even with its ridiculous denials”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned on Sunday from a trip to the US, is set to meet with the security cabinet to discuss its response to the attack.
Israel hit several targets in southern Lebanon overnight, but a stronger response is expected following the security cabinet meeting.
Lebanon’s foreign minister told Reuters his government had asked the US to urge restraint from Israel, while the US asked Lebanon to send a message to Hezbollah urging restraint as well.
Hezbollah also reportedly pre-emptively cleared out some key sites in southern and eastern Lebanon in anticipation of a possible Israeli attack, two Lebanese security sources told Reuters.
In Majdal Shams, the Syrian Druze town under Israeli occupation since 1967, some reports have cast doubt over the army’s claim of a Hezbollah attack.
Al Araby TV’s correspondent says she has spoken to an Israeli rescuer, who told her eyewitnesses believe the rocket came from Israel’s Iron Dome system rather than Hezbollah. Middle East Eye was not able to independently verify the claims.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “every indication is that indeed the rocket was from Hezbollah,” and that Washington stood by “Israel’s right to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks”.
“It’s so important that we help defuse that conflict, not only prevent it from escalating, prevent it from spreading, but to defuse it because you have so many people in both countries, in both Israel and Lebanon, who’ve been displaced from their homes,” he added.
Golan ‘full of tears’
In Majdal Shams, thousands of people attended the funeral of the children killed in the rocket attack.
Residents of the town, many of whom have refused Israeli citizenship, kicked out several Israeli politicians from the funeral, including members of the Israeli parliament and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Residents were reportedly heard shouting “get out of here, you criminal” to Smotrich.
Gathered in the town, the Druze chanted in unison to mourn the children.
They chanted: “The Golan is full of tears, for the young boys and the young girls, the mother is screaming, ‘where is my son?’ Don’t say ‘among the victims.’”