Israel is planning a major escalation in its war against Hezbollah in the next 48 hours after a purported rocket attack that killed 15 in a Druze village.
“We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said shortly after Saturday’s strike. The attack “crossed all red lines, and the response will be in accordance.”
Israel has accused the Lebanon-based Hezbollah of carrying out the deadly strike on Saturday and threatened a strong response. The Israeli cabinet is meeting later Sunday to discuss its course of action, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from his visit to Washington.
Hezbollah said it had nothing to do with the deaths but claimed responsibility for a series of other attacks in the area on Saturday, including launching a Falaq-1 rocket at an Israeli military site a few kilometers from the strike scene. Israel’s military said that an Iranian-made Falaq-1 hit the soccer field on which the children and teenagers were playing, and that it was launched from the vicinity of Chebaa, a southern Lebanese village.
The Saturday strike also injured around 40 people, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. The rocket carried a 50-kilogram—or about 110 pounds—warhead, an unusually heavy payload, Israel’s military said.
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