Israel says it wants to hurt Hezbollah but wants to avoid all-out war

Jerusalem: Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but does not want to drag the region into an all-out war, a senior Israeli defence official said, while two other officials said the country was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting.

The officials spoke as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened security assessments and his security cabinet, a day after a strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 children and teenagers.

Mourners attend a funeral for ten of the victims of the rocket attack in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights.Credit: Getty Images

As tensions escalated between Israel and the terrorist group Hezbollah following the deadly rocket strike, flights in and out of Beirut airport were cancelled and delayed. Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport is Lebanon’s only airport. It has been targeted in the country’s civil war, and previous fighting with Israel, including in the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

Israel’s security cabinet authorised Netanyahu’s government to decide on the “manner and timing” of a response to the Golan Heights attack, which Israel and the United States blamed on the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams on Saturday, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-occupied territory since Palestinian militant group Hamas’ October 7 assault sparked the war in Gaza. That conflict has spread to several fronts and risks spilling into a wider regional conflict.

Israel has vowed retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon during the day on Sunday.

But there were expectations a stronger response could follow the security cabinet meeting convened by Netanyahu in Tel Aviv.

After the meeting ended, Netanyahu’s office said the cabinet “authorised the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister to decide on the manner and timing of the response.”

The White House also blamed Hezbollah for the Majdal Shams strike. “This attack was conducted by Lebanese Hezbollah. It was their rocket, and launched from an area they control,” it said in a statement.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, said through her national security adviser that her “support for Israel’s security is ironclad”.

The US said Washington has been in discussions with Israeli and Lebanese counterparts since Saturday’s “horrific” attack and that it was working on a diplomatic solution.

Hezbollah fighters carry the coffin of their comrade who was killed with three others on Saturday by an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.Credit: AP

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington did not want further escalation of the conflict, which has seen daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah along the border.

Britain expressed concern at further escalation while Egypt said the attack could spill “into a comprehensive regional war.”

On the ground, thousands of people gathered for funerals in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.

Members of the Druze faith, which is related to Islam, Christianity and Judaism, make up more than half the 40,000-strong population of the Golan Heights. Large crowds of mourners, many in traditional high white and red Druze headwear, surrounded the caskets as they were carried through the village.

“A heavy tragedy, a dark day has come to Majdal Shams,” said Dolan Abu Saleh, head of the Majdal Shams local council, in comments broadcast on Israeli television.

Hezbollah initially announced it fired rockets at Israeli military sites in the Golan Heights, but said it had “absolutely nothing” to do with the attack on Majdal Shams.

Israel says rocket Iranian-made

However, Israel said the rocket was an Iranian-made missile fired from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, placing the blame squarely on Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

“The rocket that murdered our boys and girls was an Iranian rocket and Hezbollah is the only terror organisation which has those in its arsenal,” Israel’s foreign ministry said.

Two security sources said that Hezbollah was on high alert and had cleared some key sites in both Lebanon’s south and the eastern Bekaa Valley in case of an Israeli attack.

Israeli forces have been exchanging fire for months with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon, but both sides have appeared to be avoiding an escalation that could lead to all-out war, potentially dragging in other powers including the United States and Iran.

However, the Golan Height’s strike threatened to tip the standoff into a more dangerous phase. United Nations officials urged maximum restraint from both sides, warning that escalation could “engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief.”

Lebanon has asked the US to urge restraint by Israel, Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said. Bou Habib said the US had asked Lebanon’s government to pass on a message to Hezbollah to show restraint as well.

All-out war feared

Iran’s foreign ministry warned Israel against what it called any new adventure in Lebanon.

Syria’s foreign ministry said it held Israel “fully responsible for this dangerous escalation in the region” and said its accusations against Hezbollah were false.

The conflict has forced tens of thousands of people in both Lebanon and Israel to leave their homes. Israeli strikes have killed some 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists.

Hezbollah is the most powerful of a network of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East and opened a second front against Israel shortly after Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israel.

Druze communities live on both sides of the line between southern Lebanon and northern Israel as well as in the Golan Heights and Syria. While some serve in the Israeli military and identify with Israel, many feel marginal in Israel and some also reject Israeli citizenship.

Reuters

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