Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Fears of Middle East all-out war
MIDDLE East is braced for a potential flare-up in violence after Israeli authorities said a rocket from Lebanon struck a football field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 children and teenagers.
It raised fears of a broader regional war between Israel and Hezbollah, which in a rare move denied it was responsible for the attack.
Overnight, the Israeli military said it struck a number of targets inside Lebanon, though their intensity was similar to months of cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Hezbollah said it also carried out strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Saturday’s attack came at a sensitive time as Israel and Hamas are negotiating a ceasefire proposal to end the 10-month war in Gaza.
Attacks along the Israel-lebanon border have simmered below the threshold of all-out war since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
But the toll and young victims in Saturday’s attack could push Israel to respond more severely.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hurried home from the US after the strike and warned that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price for this attack, one that it has not paid so far”. The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, said a Falaq rocket with a 53kg warhead that belonged to Hezbollah was fired.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said yesterday “every indication” showed the rocket came from Hezbollah. He said Israel had a right to defend itself but the US did not want the conflict to escalate.
Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel the day after Hamas’ attack on October 7. Israel has responded by targeting what it says is Hezbollah’s military infrastructure with air strikes and drones.
Most attacks have been confined to border areas though.