The international community stepped up efforts Monday to contain the spread of the war in the Gaza Strip to Lebanon, following a deadly strike on the annexed Syrian Golan Heights, blamed by Israel on Lebanese Hezbollah.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised a “severe response.”
“The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this go,” he said, visiting the small town of Majdal Shams, the site of the rocket attack on a soccer field that killed 12 young men aged 10 to 16 on Saturday.
In the centre of the besieged Palestinian territory, hundreds of civilians fled after a new evacuation order was issued by the army, which is continuing its offensive launched on 7 October in response to the attack by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel.
The attack on the Golan heightened fears of a flare-up in the region. On Monday, several airlines, including Air France and Lufthansa, announced they were suspending flights to Beirut.
In Majdal Shams, hundreds of Druze attended the funeral of a 12-year-old boy killed on Saturday, after the other victims were buried on Sunday.
Israel and the United States have accused Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and allied with the Palestinian Hamas, of carrying out the attack. The Lebanese Islamist movement has denied it.
Hezbollah will pay “a high price,” Benjamin Netanyahu had already warned on Sunday, who received, with his Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, the green light from the security cabinet to “decide on the manner and time to respond to the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”
On Monday, the Lebanese movement announced that it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” on an Israeli military position, “in response” to the “assassination” of two of its fighters.
Several countries, including France and the United States, are trying to contain the risks of escalation, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said on Sunday. “We have received assurances […] that Israel will escalate in a limited way,” and in turn, “Hezbollah will respond in a limited way,” he said.
Resignation in Beirut
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that “contacts are continuing with several international, European and Arab parties to protect Lebanon.”
Iran warned Israel on Sunday of the risks of an “aggravation” of the war in the event of a retaliatory attack in Lebanon.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hezbollah has been exchanging fire daily with the Israeli army along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
On Sunday, the movement evacuated positions in eastern and southern Lebanon following threats from Israel, according to a source close to Hezbollah.
In central Beirut, residents interviewed by AFP seemed resigned. “This is part of our lives,” said Elie Rbeiz, a shopkeeper in his sixties. “We’ve known wars all our lives. What more could happen?” he added.
The United States is working toward a diplomatic solution along the border between Israel and Lebanon, the White House said Sunday. France said it was “fully committed to doing everything possible to avoid further escalation.”
Almost all of Gaza ordered to evacuate
In the Gaza Strip, witnesses reported shelling, particularly in Gaza City in the north.
Hundreds of people, luggage and mattresses crammed into trailers, fled the central areas of al-Bureij and al-Shuhada, where the army said it would intervene “with force”.
In the south, the army announced that it was continuing its “targeted operations” in Rafah and Khan Younis, adding that airstrikes had targeted “35 terrorist targets” in 24 hours across the territory.
The head of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X that “only 14% of areas in Gaza are not currently under evacuation orders.”
“Every day, the Israeli authorities issue these orders forcing people to flee,” he said Sunday, accusing Israel of causing “havoc and panic.”
The war was triggered on October 7 by an attack by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Of the 251 people abducted, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom have died, according to the army.
In response, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization, along with the United States, Canada and the European Union. Its military has launched an offensive that has so far killed 39,363 people, including at least 39 in 24 hours, according to data from the Hamas-run Gaza government’s health ministry, which does not provide details on the number of civilian and combatant deaths.
After months of fruitless indirect negotiations on a truce associated with the release of hostages, a meeting of representatives of the mediating countries with the head of Israeli intelligence, David Barnea, took place on Sunday in Rome.
Negotiations “will continue in the coming days,” according to the Prime Minister’s office.