Middle East: Israel warns Hezbollah crossed 'all red lines'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said all evidence points to the involvement of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah in Saturday's deadly rocket strike.

"Every indication is that indeed the rocket was from Hezbollah. We stand by Israel's right to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks," Blinken said during a trip to Japan.

Blinken added, however, that he does not want to see an escalation in violence between Israel and Hezbollah, which Israel has blamed for the attack on the Israel-occupied Golan Heights. The blast targeted a football pitch, killing at least 12 children and teenagers.

Israel has said it will strike hard against the Iran-backed group. Hezbollah has denied involvement.

Blinken also called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has led to cross-border hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.

"We are determined to bring the Gaza conflict to a close. It's gone on for far too long. It's cost far too many lives. We want to see Israelis, we want to see Palestinians, we want to see Lebanese live free from the threat of conflict and violence," said Blinken.

Israel launched its current offensive against the Islamist militant group Hamas in Gaza after Hamas carried out raids in southern Israel on October 7 that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has described Saturday's rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as "perfidious," but called on all parties to avoid hasty responses,

"The perfidious attacks must stop immediately. It is important to act with cool heads. Far too many people have died already in this conflict," Baerbock wrote on the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, referring to the Gaza conflict.

Israel has vowed to strike hard against the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which it holds responsible for the attack despite the Iran-backed group denying involvement. Many fear an escalation would lead to a wider Middle East war.

The rocket attack hit a soccer pitch and killed at least 12 people, including children.

In her post, Baerbock said it was "terrible that children and young people were killed who just wanted to play football" and expressed her sympathy with the victims' families.

The Lebanese government has contacted the US and asked it to urge Israel to show restraint, according to a Reuters reports citing Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

Israel is currently contemplating a response to Saturday's rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel has blamed the attack on Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and vowed rapid retaliation for the strike, in which at least 12 children and teenagers died. The Lebanon-based Hezbollah has denied involvement.

The US has also asked the Lebanese government to pass on a message urging restraint from Hezbollah, Bou Habib told Reuters.

Israel's Foreign Ministry said Saturday's rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights confirmed that Hezbollah is a "terrorist organization." Israel has blamed the deadly attack on the Iran-backed militia, which is based in Lebanon.

"Saturday's massacre constitutes the crossing of all red lines by Hezbollah. This is not an army fighting another army; rather, it is a terrorist organization deliberately shooting at civilians," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the ministry, "an Iranian rocket" caused the deaths of "our boys and girls," with Hezbollah being "the only terror organization that has those in its arsenal."

"Israel will exercise its right and duty to act in self-defense and will respond to the massacre," the statement said.

In remarks to Israeli Channel 12, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also said there was "no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all the red lines here, and the response will reflect that." 

"We are nearing the moment in which we face an all-out war," Katz said.

Hezbollah, while claiming several attacks on Israeli military positions on Saturday, has denied responsibility for the strike in the Golan Heights, in which at least 12 people died, including children.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has told Israel it should not embark on any "new adventure" in Lebanon, as Israeli authorities weigh responses to a deadly rocket attack in the Golan Heights that they have blamed on the Iran-backed Hezbollahmilitia.

 "Any ignorant action of the Zionist regime can lead to the broadening of the scope of instability, insecurity and war in the region," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanan in a statement. 

He added that Israel would be responsible for "the unforeseen consequences and reactions to such stupid behavior."

Israel has vowed to retaliate for the Golan Heights strike, and said its warplanes already attacked Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight.

The rocket attack on a soccer pitch in the Israeli-occupied region, for which Hezbollah has denied responsibility, reportedly killed at least 12 people, including children.

Israeli warplanes have conducted attacks on the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, the Israeli military said Sunday morning.

The strikes come after a rocket that Israel said was fired by the group hit a soccer pitch in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 people, including children.

"Overnight, the IAF struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets both deep inside Lebanese territory and in southern Lebanon, including weapons caches and terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Chabriha, Borj El Chmali, and Beqaa, Kfarkela, Rab El Thalathine, Khiam, and Tayr Harfa," the military said.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the Golan Heights incident, which has greatly heightened tensions between the Shiite group and Israel, further fueling fears of a full-blown conflict between the two.

The UN special coordinator for Lebanon and the head of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon urged "maximum restraint" on the Lebanese-Israeli border in a joint statement early on Sunday.

"We deplore the death of civilians — young children and teenagers — in Majdal Shams. Civilians must be protected at all times," the statement read.

"We urge the parties to exercise maximum restraint and to put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire. It could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief," they said.

The deadly attack targeting a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights has reignited fears of a broader regional conflict.  

Israeli politician Benny Gantz, who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s emergency government last month, wrote on X that the rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights showed that "Israelis of all backgrounds suffer from terror."

"As innocent Israeli children in the Druze village of Majdal Shams were murdered on a football field today at the hands of Iranian-proxy Hezbollah's rockets, we're served with a painful reminder that Israelis of all backgrounds suffer from terror, and stand together in the fight against terror," Gantz wrote in the post.

"I have said before, and will reiterate it tonight — the government will be afforded wide support from outside the government for any determined and effective response that will restore security to the citizens of the north," he added.

Gantz joined Netanyahu's emergency government shortly after the Hamas militant Islamist group's attacks in southern Israel on October 7.

He was a member of the war Cabinet, but he quit in June citing differences in opinion with Netanyahu over the prime minister’s handling of the conflict and the future of the Gaza Strip.

Gantz is a former military chief and belongs to the centrist National Unity coalition.

The European Union's foreign affairs chief called on all parties to "exercise utmost restraint and avoid further escalation" after an attack that hit a football pitch in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Josep Borrell strongly condemned "this bloodbath," calling the images captured in the aftermath, "shocking."

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Borrell also called for an independent international investigation into the incident. 

Israel blamed Hezbollah for the strike that killed 11 people, including children. 

But the Lebanese militant group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several other countries, has denied any role.

The United States condemned the "horrific" attack on a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In a statement, the White House National Security Council said the US "will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority."

The Blue Line is a UN-demarcated border between Israel and Lebanon.

The White House also did not blame anyone for the attack. 

It did, however, say, "our support for Israel's security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah."

Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah "will pay a heavy price for this attack, one that it has not paid so far," his office said.

The Israeli prime minister made the remarks in a phone call to the leader of the Druze community in Israel, according to a statement from his office.

"Israel will not let this murderous attack go unanswered," he said.

Authorities upped the death toll of a strike on a Druze village in Israel-occupied Golan Heights to 11. 

Israel is blaming Hezbollah for the strike, but the Lebanese militant group has rushed to deny any role.

Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni Arab countries, while the EU lists its armed wing as a terrorist group.

Netanyahu, who was on a visit to the United States, said he would cut short his trip by several hours.

His office said he would convene the security Cabinet after arriving back in Israel.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, "the world cannot continue to sit in silence in the face of Nasrallah's terror attacks, which come at the behest of the empire of evil in Iran."

He was referring to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who Israel blames for the deadly rocket strike on Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"The State of Israel will firmly defend its citizens and its sovereignty," Herzog wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 

The town that was attacked is mainly inhabited by Druze, an Arabic-speaking religious community.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, denied responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams.

"The Islamic Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard," it said in a statement. 

The Lebanese government on Saturday condemned "all acts of violence and aggression against civilians."

The condemnation comes after ten people were killed in a rocket attack from Lebanon on a village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"Targeting civilians is a flagrant violation of international law and goes against the principles of humanity," a government statement said, calling for "an immediate cessation of hostilities." 

The Israeli military accused Hezbollah of carrying out the attack, but the group denied any involvement.

Since Hezbollah ally Hamas' terror attack on southern Israel last October there have been constant cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.

The Israeli military is preparing a response against what it called the deadliest strike against the country since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on October 7.

The statement comes after a rocket launched from Lebanon killed 10 people, including children, at a football field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"Our intelligence is clear. Hezbollah is responsible for the killing of innocent children, teens," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said.

The militant group has denied responsibility for the strike on Majdal Shams.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was consulting, "with his Military Secretary," and planning "a security assessment later with heads of the security establishment," his office said.

 

An Israeli attack on a school in Gaza has left at least 30 killed and over 100 injured, authorities in the Hamas-run enclave said on Saturday.

They said the school was serving as provisional shelter and housing displaced Palestinians.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it attacked the area of the school as it was targeting a "camouflaged Hamas command and control compound."