Lebanon on alert as Israel announces ‘tough’ response to rocket deaths

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed a “tough” response to the deadly attack that killed teenagers in the annexed Golan Heights, while diplomats sought to contain an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah.

During a visit to the site of the rocket attack in the town of Majdal Shams that killed 12 children, Netanyahu said: “The State of Israel will not and cannot accept this. Our response will come and it will be tough.”

He was met with protests during his visit, which came after mourners gathered in the Druze Arab city to bury the last victim, 11-year-old Guevara Ibrahim.

Israel and the United States blame the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement for the attack. Hezbollah has been under fire from Israeli forces almost every day since the war between Hamas fighters and Israel in the Gaza Strip began in early October.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said intense diplomatic activity had been used to try to contain the expected Israeli reaction.

“Israel will escalate the situation to a limited extent and Hezbollah will respond to a limited extent… These are the assurances we have received,” Bou Habib said in an interview with local broadcaster Al-Jadeed.

Several analysts told AFP that this was likely the case because Israel was afraid of having to fight a two-front war.

The United States, France and others were trying to contain the escalation, Habib added, while Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said “talks are ongoing with the international, European and Arab sides to protect Lebanon and ward off dangers.”

On Monday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he was “confident” that a major war could be avoided.

New Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose country supports Hezbollah and Hamas, warned Israel against attacking Lebanon, calling it a “big mistake with serious consequences.”

Pezeshkian spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday. The Élysée Palace said Macron told his counterpart that “everything must be done to avoid a military escalation” and called on Tehran to “stop its support for destabilizing actors.”

Hezbollah denies responsibility for the rocket attack on Majdal Shams, but claimed responsibility for several attacks on Israeli military positions that day.

Israel said Hezbollah fired an Iranian Falaq-1 rocket. This type of projectile is unguided and one analyst described them as inaccurate weapons.

– Fighting in the Gaza Strip –

On Sunday, the Israeli security cabinet “authorized the prime minister and the defense minister to decide on the nature and timing of the response,” Netanyahu’s office said.

A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Hezbollah had evacuated some positions in southern and eastern Lebanon.

On Monday, Hezbollah said it had fired “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli military base after killing two of its fighters.

The group later claimed responsibility for further attacks on military positions in northern Israel. Official Lebanese media reported that a Syrian citizen had died of his injuries following an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon.

The cross-border violence has already left more than 500 people dead in Lebanon, most of them fighters, and dozens of civilians and soldiers have been killed on the Israeli side.

Hezbollah has said it supports Hamas with its attacks and will stop them if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza, where the war began on October 7 with an attack by Palestinian militants on southern Israel.

Despite months of efforts to reach a ceasefire and release the hostages, mediators and Israeli negotiators met in Rome on Sunday to discuss the latest proposal.

“Negotiations on the most important issues will continue in the coming days,” an Israeli statement said.

However, Hamas again accused Netanyahu of obstructing the negotiations, saying in a statement that he had set new conditions and thus “backtracked” on an earlier draft.

On the ground in Gaza, the Israeli military said its forces were continuing their “precise” operations in the Rafah area and nearby Khan Yunis, where troops had “eliminated dozens of terrorists.”

The military added that Israeli aircraft had attacked 35 targets across the Gaza Strip within 24 hours.

In the north of the area, Hamas’s armed wing said its fighters had “attacked” Israeli troops in Gaza’s Tal al-Hawa district, where witnesses reported artillery fire.

– Soldiers arrested –

The Hamas attack on southern Israel that started the war left 1,197 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.

The militants also captured 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still in the Gaza Strip. According to the military, 39 of them are dead.

According to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-controlled area, at least 39,363 people have been killed in Israel’s military retaliation campaign in Gaza. The ministry has not provided any information on the number of civilians and militants killed.

Since the war began, human rights activists, UN organizations and others have alleged abuse of Palestinians in Israeli detention centers. On Monday, the Israeli military said nine soldiers were being held for questioning over alleged abuse of a detainee at a facility known to hold Palestinians from Gaza.

Late Sunday, the military announced its latest evacuation order for parts of central Gaza, urging Palestinians to move to a designated safe zone near Khan Yunis.

It said Israeli forces were using “force” against militants in the area of ​​the Al-Bureij refugee camp following rocket fire from there.

Hundreds of people fled the area on Monday, witnesses said.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said that “only 14 percent” of the areas in the Gaza Strip are not subject to an Israeli evacuation order.