JERUSALEM: Israel and Hezbollah exchanged deadly fire on Tuesday, following a rocket attack from Lebanon on the Golan Heights that killed 12 children over the weekend and sent regional tensions soaring.
The strike on the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on Saturday, whose victims were aged between 10 and 16, was blamed by Israel and the United States on Lebanon’s Hezbollah, but the Iran-backed group has denied any connection to the attack.
During a visit Monday to Majdal Shams, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a “severe response”, raising fears yet again that the Gaza war could spill over into a wider regional conflagration, despite international appeals for calm.
Israeli medics on Tuesday said one civilian, a 30-year-old man, was killed following a rocket attack on the northern kibbutz of HaGoshrim.
The Israeli army meanwhile reported its forces were “striking the sources of fire”, which were in Lebanon.
It had said earlier that it struck around 10 Hezbollah targets overnight in seven different areas of south Lebanon, killing one fighter from the Iran-backed group.
Hezbollah said on Tuesday that it had fired a salvo of Katyusha rockets at a military headquarters in the village of Beit Hillel, in response to “the Israeli enemy’s attack on the town of Jibchit, which resulted in civilian casualties”.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency had reported a strike in the Jibchit area that caused “major damage”.
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