TEL AVIV: Israel struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday in the immediate aftermath of a rocket strike from Lebanon that killed 12 people at a football field in the Golan Heights, even as Western diplomats sought to curb further fighting that could broaden conflict in the Middle East.
Sunday’s strikes aimed at what the Israeli military said were Hezbollah weapons caches and infrastructure.
But the strikes seemed to fall short of an overwhelming response threatened after the Saturday attack that mostly killed teenagers and young children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew back early from a trip to the United States to meet with his security Cabinet and assess the situation.
In a Sunday morning comment on social media, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant mourned the victims of the Majdal Shams attack, saying, “We will ensure Hezbollah, the proxy of Iran, pays a price for this loss.”
Earlier, Netanyahu warned, “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for this that it has not paid so far.”
In Japan, at a news conference, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life. Every indication is that indeed … the rocket was from Hezbollah.”
One senior U.S. official said that while the United States believes Hezbollah carried out the attack, it also believes it may have been an accident and has not yet reached a conclusion about any intention behind the attack.
(VOA)
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