Israel’s Foreign Ministry warned in a statement on Sunday morning that “now is the last minute” to peacefully resolve the conflict with Hezbollah, one day after 12 children were killed in a rocket strike.
“The world must now place full responsibility on Iran and its terrorist proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis. It should designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization, impose crippling sanctions on Iran, and declare that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and place full responsibility on it for the terrible massacre of children that it committed,” said the statement, which was tweeted by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein.
“The only way that the world can prevent a full scale war which would be devastating also to Lebanon is by forcing Hezbollah to implement Security Council Resolution 1701. Now is the very last minute to do so diplomatically,” the statement warned. UNSC resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006, called for Hezbollah to be disarmed and removed from southern Lebanon.
Twelve Israeli Druze youth between the ages of 10-20 were killed and over 39 more were injured when a rocket fired by Hezbollah hit a soccer field in the Golan Druze village of Majdal Shams.
The deadly attack came hours after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a Hezbollah arms depot in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila. Three Hezbollah operatives were killed in the strike.
Hezbollah initially claimed responsibility twice for firing rockets at an army base on the nearby Mount Hermon, a few hundred meters away from Majdal Shams. But the Iran-backed terror organization backed off the claim as the casualty count mounted, claiming that the children were killed by an Israeli Iron Dome interceptor.
The Israel Defense Force said it determined that the rocket was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead launched from a location north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon. According to the army, warning sirens sounded, but there wasn’t enough time to take cover. The military is investigating why the rocket was not intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.
“The rocket that murdered our boys and girls was an Iranian rocket and Hezbollah is the only terror organization which has those in its arsenal,” the Ministry said.
“Hezbollah, the long arm of Iran, directed its fire at a civilian population. Hezbollah does not distinguish between Jews and non-Jews, and its goal is to kill Israeli citizens whoever they are. Contrary to its denials, Hezbollah is the entity that is unequivocally responsible for yesterday’s massacre.”
In the aftermath of the attack, the Israeli Air Force struck a series of Hezbollah facilities both deep inside Lebanese territory and in southern Lebanon, including in the areas of Chabriha, Borj El Chmali, and Beqaa, Kfarkela, Rab El Thalathine, Khiam, and Tayr Harfa on Saturday night. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short his visit to the US to return to Israel.
On Sunday morning, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a video statement that the army had raised its level of readiness for war with Hezbollah.
Israel’s Druze community of 152,000 trace their ancestry back to the Biblical figure Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Israeli Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.” The Druze speak Arabic but are not Muslim and are very secretive about their religious beliefs.
The Alma Research and Education Center told TPS-IL on Thursday that Hezbollah rocket barrages on northern Israel are expanding in range, reaching deeper into Israel to unevacuated communities.
Nearly 80,000 Israelis were forced to evacuate their homes near the Lebanon border when Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones in October. Hezbollah leaders have said they will continue the attacks to prevent Israelis from returning to their homes. The attacks have killed 23 civilians and 18 soldiers.
