World

Diplomats seek to avert regional war in wake of Lebanese rocket attack on Israeli-controlled town

Missile strike killed children in worst assault on Israeli-run territory since Israel and Hizbullah began exchanging fire in October

Residents gather at a soccer field hit by a rocket which killed children and teenagers in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, northern Israel. Photograph: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv/New York Times
Mon Jul 29 2024 - 00:01

Western diplomats are scrambling to prevent a surge of fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border after a rocket from Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 12 people in an Israeli-controlled town, most of them children. The rocket prompted Israel to retaliate early on Sunday with strikes across Lebanon.

Further strikes are anticipated after Israeli ministers discussed possible targets in Lebanon at a meeting on Sunday evening and reportedly gave prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant authority to decide where to hit.

The initial Israeli response appeared to stop short of a major escalation, but there were fears that the fallout from the rocket launch would lead to all-out war. Mr Netanyahu, facing domestic pressure to mount a fiercer response, met senior ministers and security officials late on Sunday to discuss further steps, after flying back early from a trip to the United States.

Israel blamed Hizbullah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese group that has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, for the deadly rocket attack on Saturday on the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams. Hizbullah has denied it was responsible.

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US secretary of state Antony Blinken said at a news conference on Sunday in Tokyo that there was “every indication” that the rocket was fired by Hizbullah.

[ At least 10 killed in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after rockets fired from Lebanon ]

US and other western diplomats were working to contain the hostilities and asked Lebanon’s government to relay a message to Hizbullah to show restraint in the face of a further Israeli response, according to Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib.

The rocket strike on Saturday, which hit children at a soccer field, was the deadliest assault on Israeli-controlled territory since Israel and Hizbullah began exchanging missile and rocket fire in October.

Some Israelis want Mr Netanyahu to authorise a full-scale ground invasion of southern Lebanon in order to deter similar attacks. But others fear that such a move would prompt a far more devastating response from Hizbullah, whose arsenal of weapons is considered larger and most sophisticated than almost any other non-state actor in the region.

Israeli commanders are also wary of opening up a second major war while the war in the Gaza Strip is still raging. After nine months of fighting with Hamas and Hizbullah, Israel’s munitions stockpiles have dwindled, raising questions about how intense a battle it could fight in Lebanon.

For now, Israeli officials say they are still open to a diplomatic resolution to the conflict with Hizbullah. Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday that a full-scale war could still be averted through the enforcement of a never-implemented United Nations resolution from 2006 that would create a demilitarised zone in southern Lebanon.

[ Israel vows to hit Hizbullah after rocket kills 12 on football field ]

Still, there were strong expectations that Israel might mount a bigger response. That, analysts fear, could tip the low-level hostilities between Israel and militias led by Hizbullah into more intense conflict.

Roughly 100,000 people in Lebanon and 60,000 in Israel have been displaced, with scores of schools and health centres shuttered in both countries.

More than 460 people in Lebanon have been killed, most of them militants. More than 100 were civilians, including 12 children and 21 health workers, according to the United Nations and Lebanon’s health ministry. The fighting has killed 22 Israeli soldiers and 24 civilians, according to the Israeli government.

But unlike in Gaza, both sides have largely avoided attacks that cause overwhelming loss of life, which would in turn prompt their opponent to respond with overwhelming force.

[ Netanyahu hopes his speech to US Congress will improve his tarnished image in Israel ]

The scale of the bloodshed on Saturday night has provided one of the strongest tests to that calculus since October.

“Hizbullah will pay a heavy price, which it has not paid up to now,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said in an overnight statement.

UN officials urged Israel and Hizbullah to “exercise maximum restraint”, warning that “it could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief”, according to a joint statement by the UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the chief of UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon, Lieut Gen Aroldo Lázaro.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.