Tensions were running high on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border Monday in anticipation of an escalation in hostilities, after Israel’s security cabinet authorised its leaders to decide on the nature and timing of a military response to a deadly rocket attack from Lebanon over the weekend. PM Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant got the authorisation from the cabinet members in a meeting Sunday night.
Visiting the scene of the strike Monday, Netanyahu said of the victims: “These children are our children, the children of all of us.Israel will not and cannot let this pass and carry on as usual. Our response is coming, and it will be severe.” Israeli politicians have been vocal about the need for a significant military blow in retaliation for the rocket strike, which killed 12 children and teenagers Saturday in the Druse Arab village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah, which has been sending rockets into Israel for months, denied responsibility for the attack, but Israel and the US have blamed the group.
Israeli analysts said Hezbollah was most likely aiming at a nearby army base on Mount Hermon and did not intentionally target the village. But the group’s use of inaccurate rockets in an area dotted with civilian communities led to the kind of unintended consequence that risks sparking an all-out war, they said.
Analysts said they expect a more powerful Israeli retaliation for Saturday’s rocket attack on Majdal Shams, but that Netanyahu was likely to calibrate the response so as not to prompt escalation into something closer to all-out war.
Since the strike on Majdal Shams on Saturday, there have been continued exchanges across the border, but they have seemed to fall within the bounds of the routine tit-for-tat of the past few months. The Israeli military said overnight that its aerial defense systems successfully intercepted an unmanned aircraft that crossed from Lebanon into northwestern Israel. On Monday morning, a drone strike in southern Lebanon killed two people and injured three others, including a child, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, in a call from Tokyo Monday with Israeli Prez Isaac Herzog, “reaffirmed the US’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iranian-backed terrorist organisations, including Hezbollah.” But he also emphasised “the importance of preventing escalation of the conflict and discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution”.
Visiting the scene of the strike Monday, Netanyahu said of the victims: “These children are our children, the children of all of us.Israel will not and cannot let this pass and carry on as usual. Our response is coming, and it will be severe.” Israeli politicians have been vocal about the need for a significant military blow in retaliation for the rocket strike, which killed 12 children and teenagers Saturday in the Druse Arab village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The Iran-backed militia group Hezbollah, which has been sending rockets into Israel for months, denied responsibility for the attack, but Israel and the US have blamed the group.
Israeli analysts said Hezbollah was most likely aiming at a nearby army base on Mount Hermon and did not intentionally target the village. But the group’s use of inaccurate rockets in an area dotted with civilian communities led to the kind of unintended consequence that risks sparking an all-out war, they said.
Analysts said they expect a more powerful Israeli retaliation for Saturday’s rocket attack on Majdal Shams, but that Netanyahu was likely to calibrate the response so as not to prompt escalation into something closer to all-out war.
Since the strike on Majdal Shams on Saturday, there have been continued exchanges across the border, but they have seemed to fall within the bounds of the routine tit-for-tat of the past few months. The Israeli military said overnight that its aerial defense systems successfully intercepted an unmanned aircraft that crossed from Lebanon into northwestern Israel. On Monday morning, a drone strike in southern Lebanon killed two people and injured three others, including a child, Lebanon’s state-run news agency said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken, in a call from Tokyo Monday with Israeli Prez Isaac Herzog, “reaffirmed the US’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iranian-backed terrorist organisations, including Hezbollah.” But he also emphasised “the importance of preventing escalation of the conflict and discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution”.
Source : Times of India
