Israel’s military (IDF) writes on the social media platform Telegram that it attacked a series of targets “deep inside Lebanese territory and in southern Lebanon”.
The targets, the IDF names seven locations, are said to belong to Hezbollah and include weapons depots and other facilities.
Israel and the militia group Hezbollah have been shelling each other almost daily since the Gaza war began as a result of the terror-labeled Hamas attack on Israel last October.
It is an incredibly unstable situation and it is exactly this type of event that can cause the situation to degenerate, even though neither side really wants it, Anders Persson, Middle East expert and docent in political science at Linnaeus University, told TT on Saturday after the attack on The Golan Heights.
If Israel wants to escalate the conflict, they can respond by bombing further into Lebanon and target senior Hezbollah leaders or infrastructure, he said at the time.
Twelve young people dead
During Saturday, Hezbollah fired a large number of rockets at Israel and areas held by Israel.
The IDF claims it was one of Hezbollah’s rockets that struck a soccer field in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Saturday. However, Hezbollah denies involvement in that attack.
The rocket attack killed at least twelve people, all between the ages of ten and 20, according to Israeli media. Several tens were injured, most of them children and young people.
The rocket struck Majdal Shams, which still has a predominantly Arab Druze population, after the area was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Netanyahu on his way home
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the Druze village on Sunday morning, writes Haaretz.
It is a terrible tragedy. Hezbollah is responsible for this, and they will pay the price, Gallant said, pledging that the country and the army stood behind the village.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in the United States in recent days but is now on his way home to Israel again.
The US, the UN and the EU condemn the attack, while fears are expressed that full-scale war will break out between Israel and Hezbollah.