MAJDAL SHAMS: Zionist Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday vowed to “hit the enemy hard” after rocket fire from Lebanon killed 12 young people in the Zionist-annexed Golan Heights and again raised fears that the war in Gaza will spread. Iran warned the Zionist entity any new military “adventures” in Lebanon could lead to “unforeseen consequences”. Western powers, including France, Germany and Britain, condemned the attack and appealed for calm. The European Union called for an independent probe into what happened.

The Zionist army called it “the deadliest attack on (Zionist) civilians” since the Oct 7 attack that began the war in Gaza and triggered regular exchanges of fire across the Lebanese border. The Zionist entity blamed Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement for firing a Falaq-1 Iranian rocket but the Iran-backed group - which has regularly targeted Zionist military positions - said it had “no connection” to the incident. It said, however, that it had fired one such rocket on Saturday toward a Zionist military target in the Golan.

The rocket fire in Majdal Shams, whose population are Arabic-speaking Druze, prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return early from the United States. Upon arrival he went immediately into a security cabinet meeting, his office said. He said “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price” for the attack, “a price it has not paid before”. The Zionist foreign ministry said Hezbollah had “crossed all red lines”.

The Zionist military said later on Sunday it had hit Hezbollah targets “both deep inside Lebanese territory and in southern Lebanon”. A Zionist drone fired two missiles at Taraiyya village in eastern Lebanon destroying a hangar and a home without causing casualties, a Lebanese security source told AFP. Hezbollah has said its cross-border fire is an act of support for Palestinian Islamists from Hamas who have been fighting the Zionist military in Gaza since Oct 7.

The Zionist military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,324 people, according to the health ministry in the territory, mostly women and children. In Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis on Sunday, the civil defense agency reported five killed in a Zionist strike that hit several tents housing displaced Palestinians at a humanitarian zone.

Meanwhile, in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Zionist forces advanced deeper into northern parts of the city, where they have yet to take full control. In Central Gaza, the Zionist military on Sunday called upon Gazans to evacuate parts of the Bureij and Shuhada areas. Residents were told to leave “immediately for their safety” and go to a “humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi.

The rocket strike on Majdal Shams hit a football pitch and killed young people who local authorities said were aged 10 to 16. Zionist police said an 11-year-old boy was still missing. Thousands of residents crowded the town’s streets in a tearful funeral ceremony for many of the dead. Early on Sunday, Gallant visited the scene, where a building was pockmarked by shrapnel.

According to Riad Kahwaji, head of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, the position Hezbollah said it targeted is about 2.4 km from the town, putting it “within margin of error” of the inaccurate rockets. But he said “the possibility of a misfire” from a Zionist air defense missile could not be ruled out and there should be an independent investigation into what happened.

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said there was “every indication” Hezbollah was behind the rocket strike. The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the “bloodbath” and also said there should be “an independent international investigation into this unacceptable incident”. The United Nations urged “maximum restraint”, in a joint statement from their special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) chief Aroldo Lazaro. Intensifying exchanges of fire “could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief,” they said.

The rocket fire on Majdal Shams came after a Zionist strike killed four Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon, prompting the militant group to announce a flurry of retaliatory rocket attacks against the Golan and the Zionist entity. Lebanon urged “an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts”, later calling for an “international investigation” into the strike on Majdal Shams. Egypt, which has been seeking to broker a Gaza ceasefire deal alongside Qatar, warned against “the dangers of a new war front opening in Lebanon”.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani meanwhile warned that “any ignorant action of the Zionist regime can lead to the broadening of the scope of instability, insecurity and war in the region”. The Zionist foreign ministry called the incident in Majdal Shams a “massacre” and accused Hezbollah of deliberately targeting civilians.

Many residents of the Druze town have not accepted Zionist nationality since the Zionist entity seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. Syria denounced the Zionist entity’s “false accusations” against Hezbollah and said the Zionist entity was looking for “pretexts to enlarge its aggression.” – Agencies