Netanyahu announces retaliation against Hezbollah after deadly attack

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Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed retaliatory measures against the Lebanon-based militia group Hezbollah after a dozen civilians were killed in a deadly rocket attack in northern Israel on Saturday.

Israel said the Iran-backed paramilitary force was behind the attack, following months of cross-border shelling between the two sides since the Gaza conflict erupted last October.

“I can say that the State of Israel will not stand idly by and accept this. We will not ignore this,” the Israeli prime minister said on Saturday in a video message from Washington before his planned return to Israel.

Other Israeli political and military leaders also vowed a strong response to what they described as the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since Hamas’s October 7 assault on the Jewish state that sparked the war in Gaza.

A day after the attack, Hezbollah began shelling northern Israel, saying it was acting in “solidarity” with the militant Palestinian group.

The rocket hit a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams on the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, where children and young people were gathering, Israeli health authorities said. Twelve people were killed and 20 others injured.

During a visit to the city on Sunday morning, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will ensure that Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy, pays a price for this loss.”

The hardliners in Netanyahu’s coalition government demanded even more. Ultranationalist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted pictures of the killed civilians on the social media portal X and wrote: “We will not rest until we have taken revenge on the despicable terrorists who mercilessly beat and slaughtered our children.”

Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack on Saturday. The group controls southern Lebanon and has been engaged in cross-border firefights with Israel for nearly 10 months. Hezbollah “has absolutely nothing to do with the incident and categorically rejects all false accusations in this regard,” the group said in a statement.

The Israeli military said the Iranian-made Falaq-1 missile was fired from southern Lebanon. On Sunday, Israeli air strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons depots and “terrorist infrastructure,” particularly near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, according to military officials.

Netanyahu is expected to convene his security cabinet on Sunday after returning from Washington. Israel’s military chief Herzi Halevi said the Israel Defense Forces would “increase their readiness for the next phase” of the fighting in northern Israel, while continuing their deployment in Gaza.

The Lebanese government on Saturday condemned “all acts of violence and attacks against civilians” and called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts.” In a statement, it stressed that “attacks against civilians constitute a blatant violation of international law and contradict the principles of humanity.”

Additional reporting by Raya Jalabi in Beirut