The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly conducted multiple airstrikes against targets in southern Lebanon, according to various news sources on Sunday morning. This comes after Israeli officials vowed retaliation following the deaths of 12 people when a rocket hit a football field in the occupied Golan Heights.
Al Jazeera has reported that explosions were heard in the coastal city of Tyre and several villages along the Israel-Lebanon border. The situation escalated on Saturday when a rocket struck the Druze village of Majdal Shams, resulting in mostly children being killed. The Israeli government blamed Hezbollah for the attack, although the Lebanon-based pro-Palestinian armed group denied these accusations.
Throughout the day, Israeli politicians made strong statements condemning Hezbollah, whose forces have been firing rockets and mortar shells at Israeli military and civilian targets in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz stated that “there is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines,” warning the country was on the brink of an “all-out war” with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the commander of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Aroldo Lazaro, issued a joint statement on Sunday, calling on “the parties to exercise maximum restraint and to put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire.” The escalation could potentially ignite a wider conflict, engulfing the entire region in catastrophic consequences.