Western diplomats were scrambling on Sunday to prevent a surge of fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border, officials said, after a rocket from Lebanon Saturday killed at least 12 people in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, most of them children.
The rocket prompted Israel to retaliate early Sunday with strikes across Lebanon. The initial Israeli response appeared to stop short of a major escalation, but there were still fears that the fallout from the rocket launch would lead to all-out war.PM Benjamin Netanyahu, facing domestic pressure to mount a fiercer response, met with ministers and security officials on Sunday to discuss further steps, after flying back early from a trip to the US.
Israel blamed Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese group that has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, for the deadly rocket attack on Saturday on the Druse Arab town of Majdal Shams. Hezbollah has denied it was responsible. US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday in Tokyo that there was “every indication” that the rocket was fired by Hezbollah.
US diplomats were working on Sunday to contain the hostilities and asked Lebanon’s govt to relay a message to Hezbollah to show restraint in the face of a further Israeli response, according to Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib. French officials also passed messages back and forth between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a Western official. France still has some influence in Lebanon owing to its former status as a French protectorate after World War I.
The backchannel diplomacy came amid threats from both Israel and Iran. The Iranian foreign ministry warned Israel of “unforeseen consequences” of any Israeli escalation, while Israel’s education minister, Yoav Kisch, called for a strong response “even if it means entering into an all-out war.”
The rocket strike on Saturday, which hit children at a soccer field, was the deadliest assault on Israeli-controlled territory since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging missile and rocket fire in Oct. Some Israelis want Netanyahu to authorise a full-scale ground invasion of southern Lebanon in order to deter similar attacks. But others fear that such a move would prompt a far more devastating response from Hezbollah, whose arsenal of weapons is considered larger and most sophisticated than almost any other nonstate actor in the region. Israeli commanders are also wary of opening up a second major war while the war in Gaza is still raging.
The Golan Heights is a territory once held by Syria that was captured by Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Israel annexed the territory in 1981, a move that was not recognised by most of the world.
The rocket prompted Israel to retaliate early Sunday with strikes across Lebanon. The initial Israeli response appeared to stop short of a major escalation, but there were still fears that the fallout from the rocket launch would lead to all-out war.PM Benjamin Netanyahu, facing domestic pressure to mount a fiercer response, met with ministers and security officials on Sunday to discuss further steps, after flying back early from a trip to the US.
Israel blamed Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese group that has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, for the deadly rocket attack on Saturday on the Druse Arab town of Majdal Shams. Hezbollah has denied it was responsible. US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday in Tokyo that there was “every indication” that the rocket was fired by Hezbollah.
US diplomats were working on Sunday to contain the hostilities and asked Lebanon’s govt to relay a message to Hezbollah to show restraint in the face of a further Israeli response, according to Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib. French officials also passed messages back and forth between Israel and Hezbollah, according to a Western official. France still has some influence in Lebanon owing to its former status as a French protectorate after World War I.
The backchannel diplomacy came amid threats from both Israel and Iran. The Iranian foreign ministry warned Israel of “unforeseen consequences” of any Israeli escalation, while Israel’s education minister, Yoav Kisch, called for a strong response “even if it means entering into an all-out war.”
The rocket strike on Saturday, which hit children at a soccer field, was the deadliest assault on Israeli-controlled territory since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging missile and rocket fire in Oct. Some Israelis want Netanyahu to authorise a full-scale ground invasion of southern Lebanon in order to deter similar attacks. But others fear that such a move would prompt a far more devastating response from Hezbollah, whose arsenal of weapons is considered larger and most sophisticated than almost any other nonstate actor in the region. Israeli commanders are also wary of opening up a second major war while the war in Gaza is still raging.
The Golan Heights is a territory once held by Syria that was captured by Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Israel annexed the territory in 1981, a move that was not recognised by most of the world.
#Fears #escalation #rocket #Lebanon #kills #Golan #soccer #field #Times #India
