By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s military confirmed it struck Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon and in the country’s southern region on Sunday in response to a rocket strike from Lebanon that killed 12 people, mostly teenagers and children, on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised to retaliate against what military officials said was the “deadliest single attack on Israel” since the October 7 massacre by Hamas.
He returned from the United States early to Israel early to deal with the crisis and was due to chair an emergency Security Cabinet meeting.
Israel blamed Hezbollah, which it designated as a terrorist organization, for Saturday’s attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams, but Hezbollah denied any involvement.
Early on Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had conducted air strikes against seven Hezbollah targets “deep inside Lebanese territory”
It was unclear whether there were any casualties.
‘HEFTY PRICE’
“Overnight, the [Israeli Air Force] IAF struck a series of Hezbollah terror targets both deep inside Lebanese territory and in southern Lebanon,” the IDF said.
The targets included “weapons caches and terrorist infrastructure in the areas of Chabriha, Borj El Chmali, and Beqaa, Kfarkela, Rab El Thalathine, Khiam, and Tayr Harfa,” the Israeli military added.
Netanyahu vowed that Iran-backed Hezbollah would “pay a hefty price” after the deadly strike on the football pitch in the remote town in the Golan Heights, which came amid a day-long barrage of rocket fire from Lebanon.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services said “large numbers” of ambulances were dispatched to the scene to treat the casualties, all aged between 10 and 20 years old.
Video and imagery showed young casualties strewn across the grass, some wearing sports shirts.
The rising tensions have the potential to trigger an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, whose forces have regularly exchanged fire since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in October.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
A massive barrage of Israeli airstrikes hit Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon just after the terrorist group’s leader declared that two days of intense hybrid bombings, including the detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies targeting Hezbollah forces, amounted to a declaration of war.
Facing relentless violence against their communities by Islamic jihadist terror groups, 16.2 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa have now been forced to flee their homes and live in poverty-stricken Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, the Christian Post (CP) reports.
A Pakistani court has sentenced Shagufta Kiran, a Christian mother of four, to death for “committing blasphemy against Islam,” a senior Christian advocacy activist told Worthy News Thursday.
Amid Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reiterated that the kingdom would not recognize Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Times of Israel reports. The Crown Prince made his remarks during an annual speech to the advisory Shura Council on Wednesday (September 18).
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo says that the pager model allegedly used by Hezbollah members that simultaneously exploded and killed numerous people, mainly in Lebanon, was made by its Hungarian partner.
Israel has condemned an adopted United Nations resolution demanding that all Israeli forces and civilians pull out of Palestinian areas within a year. The resolution also called for an embargo on arms that Israel might use in those areas.
Israel’s atomic chief has warned that Syria built an undeclared nuclear facility after Iran, which he said has “in alarming amounts conducting covert nuclear activities.”