Israel bombs Hezbollah targets after Golan rocket attack

ISRAELI fighter jets bombed weapons depots and infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon on Sunday in retaliation for the previous day’s rocket attack by the Iran-backed terrorist group in the occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 youths playing soccer.

Sites were bombed in Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, in Shabriha and Burj el-Shemali near the southern city of Tyre, and the villages of Kafr Lila or Kfar Kila, Rab el-Thalathine, Khiam and Tayr Harfa, Al Jazeera reports.

An Israeli drone fired two missiles at the village of Taraiyya in eastern Lebanon, destroying a hanger and a home without causing casualties, a Lebanese security source told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The bombings followed Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s earlier vow to “hit the enemy hard” after an Iranian-made rocket fired by Hezbollah at a football field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams killed 10 and 16 years old boys in a soccer field.

The rocket fire in Majdal Shams prompted Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return early from the United States to convene his security cabinet.

“Israel will not let this murderous attack go unanswered and Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for it, a price it has not paid before,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli foreign ministry said Hezbollah had “crossed all red lines.”

Hezbollah has said its cross-border fire is an act of support for Palestinian Islamists from Hamas who have been fighting Israel’ military since 7 October when they attacked southern Israel.

Mourning

Meanwhile, thousands of Druze men and women, many dressed in black, arrived for the funeral Sunday of several of the 12 youths killed in the rocket attack.

Druze follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Early on Sunday morning, Druze women gathered around the coffins covered in white shrouds ahead of the funeral.

Several women dressed in black abayas cried as they laid flowers on the caskets, an AFP correspondent reported.

Many held pink flowers, while hundreds of men dressed in traditional Druze attire, including white caps topped with red, arrived for the ceremonies.

“Every night, every day, every minute we are worried. It’s been like this for 10 months,” Laith, a 42-year-old nurse who gave only his first name, told AFP.

“Everybody you see here is worried all the time,” he said. “We are so very sad. We lost children, children playing soccer.”

Under scorching sun, religious leaders led hundreds at a prayer meeting in a local municipal building, with the entire town at a standstill.

Shops closed, and checkpoints were set up at the entrance of every village in the Golan.

In Majdal Shams many residents have not accepted Israeli nationality since Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967.