Lebanon’s foreign minister has condemned a rocket attack on a football field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights – but said it does not give Israel a “licence to kill”.
Israel and the US have blamed Hezbollah, but the Iranian-backed group has denied it was responsible for the strike which killed 12 children and teenagers and left 20 others wounded.
The Israeli military said the rocket fired from Lebanon that slammed into a football field in the town of Majdal Shams – about seven miles south of Lebanon and next to the Syrian border – on Saturday was the deadliest attack on civilians since the Hamas‘ attack on 7 October.
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Speaking to Sky News’ Alex Crawford, Lebanon’s foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib called for a UN investigation but said there was “no logic” for Hezbollah to have been behind it.
“Whatever happened, we as a government condemn the killing of civilians – whoever they are, wherever they are, in the Middle East or all over the world,” he said.
“So we condemn this incident that happened, because it was against civilians and against young men who were playing football or something like that.
“Second thing, we condemn whoever did it – be it somebody Lebanese or Israeli.”
He said the area is Syrian territory occupied by Israel and its inhabitants are Syrian, so retaliation “is not self defence”.
“And therefore it doesn’t mean give them a licence to kill and destroy like they took in Gaza,” he said. “The world should not give them a licence to kill.”
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The attack hit the village of Majdal Shams, part of the Druze community, a faith which makes up more than half the 40,000-strong population of the Golan Heights.
The territory was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
Attacks along the Israel-Lebanon border have simmered below the threshold of all-out war since the start of the Israel-Gaza war 10 months ago.
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But the toll and young victims in Saturday’s attack could push Israel to respond more severely and has raised fears of a broader regional war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Overnight, the Israeli military said it struck a number of targets inside Lebanon, though their intensity was similar to months of cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed group.
Hezbollah said it also carried out strikes but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hurried home from the US after the strike and warned Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price for this attack, one that it has not paid so far”.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Sunday that “every indication” showed the rocket came from Hezbollah. He said Israel had a right to defend itself but the US did not want the conflict to escalate.
