By Deutsche Welle
28 Jul 2024, 21:16 PM EDT
Israel’s defence minister has vowed to strike “hard at the enemy” following a bombardment launched from Lebanon and attributed to Hezbollah that left 12 dead in the annexed area of the Golan Heights.
Israel will strike the enemy “hard,” said Minister Yoav Gallant from Majdal Shams, the Druze town where a rocket hit a football field, killing 12 young people and wounding 30.
They shot at civilians
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz blamed Hezbollah for the bombing, saying Sunday that the Lebanese Islamist movement had crossed “all red lines” by “deliberately firing on civilians.”
Hezbollah has admitted firing rockets at military positions in the Golan Heights, but denied being behind the attack on Majdal Shams, a town of about 11,000 residents.
Israel said the projectile was an Iranian Falaq-type rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead: “The projectile that killed our children was an Iranian rocket, and Hezbollah is the only terrorist organization that has them in its arsenal,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry added.
“Hezbollah will pay a heavy price”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Saturday that Hezbollah would pay a “heavy price” for the attack. Israel would not leave “this deadly attack unanswered,” he insisted.
The United States also blamed Hezbollah for the “horrendous” attack, saying it was “their rocket, launched from an area they control.”
Since October 8, one day after the Hamas terrorist group attacked Israeli territory, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been exchanging fire almost daily on the border.
The Golan Heights is a strategic region that Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 war. Israel annexed two-thirds of this territory in 1981, a move not recognized by the international community, except for the US.
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