Politics Israel approves retaliatory strike against Hezbollah
Following the devastating rocket attack on the Golan Heights annexed by the Jewish state, Israel's government is preparing for a retaliatory strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
29.07.2024, 05:35
SDA
After more than four hours of deliberations, the Security Cabinet authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Joav Galant to "decide on the manner and timing of the action against the terrorist organization Hezbollah," the Prime Minister's Office announced in the evening. Netanyahu had previously threatened the pro-Iranian militia that it would pay a "high price".
While Hezbollah said it was preparing for a potentially serious attack by Israel, the Lebanese airline Middle East Airlines postponed the return of some of its flights in the evening, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. US officials had contacted their counterparts in Israel and Lebanon and exchanged messages with Iran to try to de-escalate the situation, the US newspaper quoted Arab and European officials familiar with the matter as saying. All sides have indicated that they are not interested in extending the conflict, it said.
Reports of Israeli air strikes in Lebanon
Meanwhile, Lebanese media in Israel were quoted in the evening as saying that there had been air strikes in the south of Lebanon. There had been Palestinian reports of heavy attacks during the night, including from Hula. The area had already been targeted several times by Israel's air force in recent months. However, it was initially unclear whether this was Israel's expected reaction to the rocket attack on the Golan. During the night, the Israeli military initially gave no information on renewed attacks in Lebanon. Following the rocket attack on the Golan Heights, Israel's military had already attacked several targets in neighboring Lebanon on Sunday night.
Israel and the USA blame the Shia militia Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran, for Saturday's attack in the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in which at least twelve people aged between 10 and 20 were killed. "This attack was carried out by the Lebanese Hezbollah. It was a Hezbollah rocket fired from an area under Hezbollah control," said Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the US National Security Council. The attack must be condemned everywhere. UN representatives called on both sides to show "the greatest possible restraint".
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had nothing to do with the attack. According to the US news portal "Axios", the militia is said to have told the United Nations that an Israeli defensive missile caused the explosion. Iran also blamed Israel itself for the attack in Majdal Shams. Israel's Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, however, said at the site of the impact that it was a Hezbollah Falak missile.
"Anyone who shoots such a rocket at a residential area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children," said Halevi. The Golan Heights are a strategically important rocky plateau. The area was conquered by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981. However, this was not recognized internationally. The US government has been in contact with the Israeli and Lebanese sides since the attack, said the National Security Council spokeswoman. US support for Israel's security is firm and unwavering, she said.
USA: Working on a diplomatic solution
At the same time, the US is working on a "diplomatic solution along the Blue Line" that will end all attacks once and for all and allow citizens on both sides of the border to return home safely. The Blue Line is the demarcation line drawn by the United Nations on the border between the two countries. A buffer zone was established in the south of Lebanon at the end of the second Lebanon war in 2006. Since the beginning of the Gaza war last October, Hezbollah and Israel's army have been fighting almost daily. The Iranian-backed militia is acting in solidarity with the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The rocket attack on the Golan came at a critical time for the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza war. An escalation between Israel and Hezbollah could once again interrupt the indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, in which Qatar, Egypt and the USA are acting as mediators, which have been dragging on for months. Israel's chief negotiator David Barnea only returned to Israel at the weekend after a recent round of negotiations in Rome. The talks will continue in the coming days, the Prime Minister's Office announced without giving details.
Erdogan and Israel threaten each other
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened Israel with military intervention. "Just as we went into Nagorno-Karabakh, just as we went into Libya, we will do the same to them," he said at an event organized by his ruling AKP party in Rize on the Black Sea, referring to Israel. Erdogan was referring to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, where Erdogan supported the conflicting party Azerbaijan with drones, among other things. In the civil war in Libya, Ankara is supporting the internationally recognized government with military equipment and personnel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz promptly warned the Turkish President: "Erdogan is following in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatening to attack Israel. He should only remember what happened there and how it ended," Katz wrote late in the evening on Platform X. In 2003, US troops invaded Iraq. The military operation led to the overthrow of the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Three years later, Hussein was executed for massacring Kurds and Shiites.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war, relations between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated drastically. Erdogan called Hamas a "liberation organization" and compared Israel's head of government Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler. In mid-July, Erdogan declared that his country would no longer agree to cooperation between NATO and its partner Israel in future until lasting peace was achieved in the Palestinian territories.
