Reports have said attacks suspected to be carried out by Hezbollah in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights have raised fears in the United States that Israel and Hezbollah are on the brink of all-out war.
Israel and Hezbollah have been increasingly attacking each other in recent months amid an escalating Middle East conflict that began with Hamas' Oct. 7 incursion into Israel, killing about 1,200 people. A missile fired from Lebanon – which the Israeli military claims was from Hezbollah – struck the Golan Heights area, wounding 30 people and killing at least 10 civilians, many of them children. according to To Axios. (Related article: Families of American hostages in Gaza 'disappointed' with Netanyahu's parliamentary speech)
“We immediately began triage and evacuated some of the injured to a local clinic,” said Magen David Adam, who took part in the rescue effort. Said The New York Times.
According to Axios, the recent escalation in tensions has raised fears in the US that Israel and Hezbollah could erupt into a major war.
Israeli emergency services and local residents gather near the site of an alleged attack from Lebanon in the Israeli-annexed village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on July 27, 2024. (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)
“What happened today could be the trigger that we have been worrying about and trying to avoid for 10 months,” a US official told Axios. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.
Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in small skirmishes for months since Hezbollah declared its support for Hamas after it attacked Israel in October, but tensions have escalated dramatically in recent months, with both sides stepping up artillery fire on each other along the Israeli-Lebanese border.
According to Axios' Barak Rabid, the Israeli military appears to be viewing Saturday's attack as a major escalation and a step closer to “all-out war.”
Israeli security forces depart in a helicopter near the site of an alleged attack from Lebanon in the Israeli-annexed village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on July 27, 2024. (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)
“[Hezbollah] “Israel will pay a heavy price for this attack that it has never paid before,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Saturday. according to To the Associated Press.
“We are approaching the moment of all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said. Said Rabid“We will pay the price, but when the war is over [Hezbollah’s leader Hassan] Nasrallah and Hezbollah will be destroyed and the Lebanese state will suffer a serious blow.
The Biden administration has worried for months that war between Israel and Hezbollah was fast approaching, and Saturday's attack only heightened those fears, Axios reported. U.S. officials believe a ceasefire in Gaza, an Israeli-Hamas battleground, may be the only way to keep Israel and Hezbollah from going to war with each other.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cuts short a visit to the United States early to address the deadly incident in the Golan Heights. Announced Saturday.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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