World Awaits Israel’s Response To Deadly Hezbollah Rocket Attack That Hit Soccer Field

With tensions in the region already sky-high, the world is bracing for the anticipated Israeli response to Saturday’s deadly Hezbollah rocket attack that hit a neighborhood soccer field in the Golan Heights.

“Our response will come, and it will be severe,” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday while laying a wreath honoring the 12 children and teens killed Saturday and wounded nearly 20 others in the attack on the pitch in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. Israel has occupied that strategically important high ground since the 1967 Six-Day War. The attack was so sudden people didn’t have a chance to seek cover, with a bomb shelter being just feet from the impact crater. Hezbollah denies responsibility while Israel and the U.S. say it was their rocket.

Israel has already responded, albeit in a relatively limited manner.

Early Sunday morning local time, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out airstrikes into Lebanon, some hitting targets about 100 miles north of the so-called Blue Line, the UN-drawn border between Israel and Lebanon. Though further than the usual strikes, they were orders of magnitude less intense than what could be in the works.

“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 Sunday on its Telegram channel. Those 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.”

There were some indications on Monday that Israel may stop short of a full-on invasion of Lebanon.

“Israel also estimates that while several days of fighting may follow the strike, the move would still be a ‘limited’ one only, the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth news outlet reported.

Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but not drag the Middle East into all-out war, two Israeli officials told Reuters.

Two other Israeli officials said Israel was preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting in the wake of the soccer pitch attack, the publication reported.

“The estimation is that the response will not lead to an all-out war,” said the diplomatic source. “That would not be in our interest at this point.”

Meanwhile, an official with Hezbollah told The Associated Press that the group has started moving precision-guided missiles but doesn’t want a full-blown war with Israel. The group possesses a far more potent arsenal than what it has shown so far, which you can read more about in our deep dive here.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby downplayed talk of a wider conflict as a result of the Madjal Shams attack.

“We’ve all heard about this all-out war scenario now multiple points over the last 10 months,” said Kirby. “Those predictions were exaggerated, then, quite frankly, we think they’re exaggerated now.”

Israel, he added, “has every right to respond. It was Hezbollah that started firing on Israel way back in October. And I think we need to keep that in mind. But nobody wants a broader war. And I’m confident that we’ll be able to avoid such an outcome.”

On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. He condemned the rocket attack and “reaffirmed his unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and the right of self-defense.”

The U.S. is leading diplomatic efforts to rein in Israel, urging it not to strike Beirut, Dahiyeh, or Lebanese civilian infrastructure, Reuters reported. Beirut is a command and control and logistics hub for Hezbollah, which controls part of that area.

The State Department on Sunday warned U.S. citizens to consider alternate ways to get out of Lebanon should things escalate.

“The U.S. Embassy calls U.S. citizens’ attention to the fact that amid heightened tension in the region, some airlines are adjusting their flight schedules in Lebanon,” the embassy said. “Middle East Airlines (MEA) has announced that some flights originally due to land in Beirut on the evening of July 28 will now land on the morning of July 29. Other airlines are reportedly considering temporary alterations to their flight plans as well. The Embassy encourages U.S. citizens traveling to or from Lebanon to monitor their flight status closely, to be aware that itineraries could change with little or no warning, and to make alternate plans.”

The Middle East has been in a heightened state of alert since the Oct. 7 sneak attack by Hamas on Israel, which responded with deadly airstrikes and a ground offensive in Gaza. The attack on Israel killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and resulted in scores of hostages being taken. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed in its aftermath.

The Lebanon-based Hezbollah quickly joined the fight, albeit in a restrained manner, repeatedly attacking Israel with spurts of missiles, rockets, and drones. In turn, Israel has carried out repeated strikes on the group’s targets in Lebanon.

So far, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has largely been limited to northern Israel and southern Lebanon, where citizens on both sides of the border have been forced to evacuate.

This latest incident, however, threatens to engulf the entire region, with Iran saying its proxies in Iraq and Syria could join the fight should Israel invade Lebanon.

“We warn ‘Israel’ against any adventure against Lebanon under the pretext of the Majdal Shams incident,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Sunday, according to the Hezbollah-connected Al Mayadeen Telegram channel. “The Zionist entity is primarily responsible for the unexpected consequences of such foolish behavior.”

Israel is walking a fine line in its planning of a response to Saturday’s attack. Their predicament, according to current and former security officials who spoke with The Washington Post, “is how to answer the attack without leaving Hezbollah with no choice but to escalate in turn — which might draw Iran more directly into the fight,” the publication reported. “The Israeli military keeps a range of target scenarios on the shelf, regularly updated with new intelligence, according to a military official who described readiness planning to The Washington Post on a visit to the border zone in the spring.”

On Sunday, Israel’s Security Cabinet authorized Netanyahu and Gallant “to decide on the manner and timing of the response against the Hezbollah terrorist organization,” Netanyahu announced on Twitter.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the tit-for-tat battle between Israel and Hezbollah continued.

“This morning, approximately 20 projectiles that were identified crossing from Lebanon fell in an open area adjacent to the Goma Junction in northern Israel,” the IDF said Monday on Telegram. “No injuries were reported, and in accordance with protocol, no sirens were sounded.”

Several minutes later, “the IAF struck and destroyed the launcher used to fire the projectiles toward northern Israel in the area of Houla in southern Lebanon,” IDF stated. “Furthermore, a short while ago the IAF struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area of Kfarhamam from which projectiles were fired toward Har Dov. Additional terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon was struck over the past day. In addition, a Hezbollah terrorist cell that was identified operating in the area of Meiss El Jabal was eliminated by the IAF.”

Beyond the potential for large-scale civilian casualties in both Israel and Lebanon should the IDF launch a full-scale ground invasion, such an action could also drag Iran as well as the U.S. into the fray. That’s a major reason the Biden administration is working hard to limit Israel’s response.

We will know more in the next hours and days how all this shakes out.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com