DC official fears all-out war as US condemns ‘horrific’ rocket attack on Majdal Shams
After Hezbollah hit kills 12 children at a soccer field in Druze village, EU foreign policy chief calls for international probe of ‘bloodbath’; Beirut urges end to hostilities
The United States condemned a rocket attack Saturday on a soccer field in the Golan Heights that killed a dozen children, calling the strike “horrific.”
A Biden administration official expressed concern that the deadly Hezbollah strike could spark an all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group. “What happened today could be the trigger we have been worried about and tried to avoid for 10 months,” the official told Axios.
It was the single deadliest Hezbollah attack on northern Israel since fighting there began in October.
The European Union called for an international probe of the “bloodbath” in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams.
The US, which has been leading diplomatic efforts aimed at de-escalating the conflict across the Lebanese-Israeli border, denounced the attack and said US support for Israel’s security was “iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”
The US “will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority,” the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a statement. The Blue Line refers to the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described “shocking images from the soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams.”
“I strongly condemn this bloodbath. We need an independent international investigation into this unacceptable incident. We urge all parties to exercise utmost restraint and avoid further escalation,” Borrell said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Lebanon’s government, in a statement that didn’t mention Majdal Shams, urged an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned all attacks on civilians.
Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force which operates in southern Lebanon, told Reuters its force commander was in contact with authorities in both Lebanon and Israel “to understand the details of the Majdal Shams incident and to maintain calm.”
The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon urged maximum restraint.
Hezbollah initially claimed responsibility for launching a barrage of Katyusha rockets and a single heavy Falaq rocket at a nearby military base.
As news emerged of the heavy rocket hitting the Druze town, and the deadly outcome of the strike, the terror group issued a statement claiming that it had “absolutely nothing to do with the incident.”
But IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari, in a press conference from the scene, identified the rocket as an Iranian-made Falaq-1. “A Falaq-1 rocket struck here in the soccer field, it is an Iranian rocket, manufactured in Iran, a rocket with a warhead of over 50 kilograms of explosives,” he said.
“The forensic findings at the scene point to this rocket. Falaq-1 is only in use by the Hezbollah terror group, which carried out this attack from Chebaa,” Hagari added.
The IDF said it had determined that the rocket was launched by the terror group from an area just north of the Lebanese village of Chebaa.
The shocking attack led to swift promises of retaliation and talk of an unprecedented response among Israeli officials as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hurried home from the US, raising the specter of a fresh escalation and a potential full-blown war between Israel and the Lebanese terror group.
It was the single deadliest attack on northern Israel since the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah began hostilities late last year.
Since October 8, Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, with the group saying it is doing so to support Gaza amid the war there that opened with Palestinian terror group Hamas’s devastating cross-border attack on Israel.
So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 24 civilian deaths on the Israeli side — including in Saturday’s attack — as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.
Hezbollah has named 381 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 68 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.
