Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that there would be a “severe” retaliation for the attack that killed 12 children in the occupied and annexed part of the Golan Heights while, in the background, efforts are being made to prevent further escalation of the conflict Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah.
For months now, concerns have been voiced by the international community about a regional flare-up amid the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, triggered by an unprecedented raid by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s military arm into the southern part of the Israeli territory on the 7th. October.
The rocket launch on Saturday against the occupied since 1967 part of the Syrian Golan Heights attributed by the Israeli government to Hezbollah, who denies the charge. The Lebanese movement, an ally of Iran and Hamas, opened a front with Israel on the borders of the two countries since the day after the outbreak in the Gaza Strip.
“These children are our children (…) The State of Israel will not let this go, it cannot let it go. Our retribution will come, and it will be harsh,” Mr Netanyahu threatened in the village of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, in the border region of Lebanon, Syria and Israel.
“Murderer, Murderer” against Netanyahu
Residents gather in Majdal Shams to protest Netanyahu’s visit
In this small Druze town with a population of 11,000, 12 boys and girls, aged between 10 and 16, were killed when a rocket hit a soccer field.
Dozens of residents of Majdal Shams, some chanting “murderer, murderer” demonstrated against Prime Minister Netanyahu, some behind metal barriers, under the watchful eye of a heavy police force.
“We only want peace in the Golan. Let Netanyahu go home! The war broke out because of him,” said Camille Hutterinhabitant.
During the visit the Prime Minister of Israel met with a member of the Druze community, an offshoot of Islam, and residents.
In the occupied and annexed part of the Golan Heights, about 25,000 Israelis live alongside 23,000 Druze, who say they are mostly Syrian, although they have the status of residents of Israel.
Druze residents protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Majdal Shams
Hezbollah will pay ‘highly’
Hezbollah will pay “dearly,” warned Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday, who was given the green light by his government’s security council to decide, along with Defense Minister Yoav Gallad, “on the manner and timing of retaliation against the terrorist organization.” Hezbollah.”
Worried about the possibility of a full-scale war, airlines including Air France and the Lufthansa Group have suspended flights to Beirut.
Travel advice from Britain
Britain has issued a travel advisory, urging its nationals to leave Lebanon. “The situation is evolving rapidly,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said via X.
For Orna Mizrahi, a Hezbollah expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, the retaliation will be more “catastrophic” than so far, but will likely be “limited” to “prevent” the outbreak of a “major war scale”.
In anticipation, Hezbollah announced, as it has done almost daily since October 8, that it fired rockets and missiles at military positions in northern Israel, after two more of its fighters were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Indignation in Beirut as well
In Beirut, residents seemed resigned. “All our lives we live wars. What else could go wrong,” he said casually.
In Washington, the White House said it was “confident” that a wider war between Israel and Hezbollah could be avoided.
In Iran, President Massoud Pezheskian warned that Israel would make a “grave mistake” that would have “consequences” if it launched an attack on Lebanon during talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
According to the French presidency, Mr Macron told the Iranian president that “everything must be done to avoid escalation” and called on Iran to “stop supporting destabilizing factors”, insisting that another war would have “catastrophic consequences”.
Hezbollah (“Party of God”), a movement allegedly armed and financed by Iran, has great influence in Lebanon; its opponents describe it as a state within a state. It is designated a terrorist organization by the US, just like Hamas.
298th day of war in Gaza
On the southern front, the Israeli army yesterday continued its air and ground bombardment of the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip, where the war is in its 298th day and the population is at risk of starvation, according to the UN.
Following new orders to hastily evacuate civilians from his side, hundreds of Palestinians, with their few possessions and mattresses, were leaving al-Burayj and al-Suhanda (center).
In the southern Gaza Strip, operations continued in Rafah and Khan Younis against units of Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007.
“This is our 6th or 7th displacement. Where to go; Every couple of days, (the Israeli army) demands that we leave. How long will this situation last?” said Mohammed al-Zwaidi as he left Bureij.
The blood tax is heavy
On October 7, Hamas’ military arm launched an unprecedented raid in southern Israel that killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people abducted that day, 111 are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip, but 39 are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli military.
Large-scale operations by the Israeli armed forces have since claimed the lives of at least 39,363 people in the Palestinian enclave, also mostly civilians, according to the latest figures from the Hamas government’s health ministry.
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