Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to retaliate against Hezbollah for the past weekend’s missile attack that killed a dozen Druze children at a soccer facility in the Golan Heights.
While visiting the site of the incident in the town of Majdal Shams, Netanyahu told community leaders that the victims “are our children; they are the children of all of us” and that the Jewish state “will not and cannot overlook this” before promising a “severe” response.
The Prime Minister’s sentiments were shared by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who, in an earlier trip to the area, stated that those responsible for the incursion will “pay a price.”
Hezbollah officials, who have been directing an almost ten-month-long, unrestricted military campaign against northern Israel, denied that their forces played any role in the strike by what has been identified as an Iranian-made Falaq rocket with a 117-pound warhead.
Netanyahu’s comments appear to have raised concern among leaders of the Tehran-backed militia, as one Hezbollah source confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that their operatives are currently positioning some of their guided munitions for use against potential IDF reprisals.
The possibility of Jerusalem directly intervening against the Lebanese-based terrorists has prompted renewed Western diplomatic efforts to avert further escalation in the region, which is already strained by the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog regarding the matter, and representatives from the White House National Security Council said that they are working on a mediated resolution to Hezbollah’s actions.
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