Lebanon called today for an international investigation into yesterday's rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights, for which Israel accused “Hezbollah“ and warned that an Israeli attack on Lebanon could trigger a regional conflict, reported France Presse, quoted by BTA.
Israel reported that a rocket fired from Lebanon yesterday at a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams killed 12 youths between the ages of 10 and 16, wounded about 30 others, and left another 13-year-old child missing. .
According to Israel, it is an Iranian Falak type missile. with a 53-kilogram warhead. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, “Hezbollah”, which denies being the perpetrator of the attack, is the only faction in possession of such a missile.
In a statement carried by the official National News Agency (NNA), Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib called for an “international investigation or tripartite commission meeting mediated by the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to establish the truth“ about the attack.
The tripartite commission brings together military officials from Lebanon and Israel - two countries that are technically at war - and representatives from the United Nations Interim Peacekeeping Force stationed in southern Lebanon.
The minister rejected the possibility that the influential Hezbollah group, which dominates political life in Lebanon, had deliberately targeted civilians, saying that since the start of the Gaza war in October it had only targeted &ldquo ;military positions".
He believes the attack may have been “performed by other organizations” or that it was “Israel's or "Hezbollah”'s fault.
The minister called on both sides to implement UN Resolution 1701, adopted after the war between "Hezbollah" and Israel in 2006, which provided for the deployment of only the Lebanese Army and the United Nations Interim Peacekeeping Force (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon.
A “large-scale attack on Lebanon will escalate tensions in the region and provoke a regional war”, he warned, and Israel threatened to make "Hezbollah" to pay a “high price“.
Declaring its support for "Hamas", the pro-Iranian group "Hezbollah" has been exchanging fire daily with the Israeli army on the border between Lebanon and Israel since the start of the Gaza war, triggered by the Palestinian Islamist movement's attack on Israeli territory on October 7.
Since October 8, at least 527 people have been killed in an exchange of fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also 104 Lebanese civilians, according to AFP data. On the Israeli side, according to the authorities, 22 soldiers and 24 civilians were killed.
Meanwhile, the head of "Mossad" David Barnea, CIA director William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel held talks in Rome about a possible cease-fire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, Italian news agency ANSA reported. quoted by BTA.
Talks reportedly focused on the “updated“ Israel's proposal to “Hamas”, which was provided yesterday to the American negotiators.
The talks in Rome are taking place amid tensions following yesterday's deadly rocket attack on the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, followed by Israeli attacks on multiple sites in Lebanon overnight.