General
Monday Briefing
Growing hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.
People near a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled town of Majdal Shams, a day after a rocket from Lebanon struck the site on Saturday. Credit…Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
Tensions rise between Israel and Lebanon
Western diplomats have scrambled to prevent a surge of fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border after a rocket from Lebanon killed at least 12 children and teenagers on Saturday at a soccer field in a Druse Arab town in the occupied Golan Heights.
Israel blamed Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese group that has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, for the attack. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
It was the deadliest assault on Israeli-controlled territory since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging missile and rocket fire in October, and Israel retaliated early yesterday with strikes across Lebanon. The Israeli response was short of a major escalation, but fears remained that the fallout from the rocket launch would lead to all-out war.
For now, Israeli officials say that they are still open to a diplomatic resolution. A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday that a full-scale war could still be averted through the enforcement of a never-implemented U.N. resolution from 2006 that would create a demilitarized zone in southern Lebanon.
On the ground: A stunned hush of collective mourning fell over the town of Majdal Shams after the attack. “We are still in the nightmare,” one resident said.
Related: Negotiators from Israel, Qatar and the U.S. met in Rome to resume talks over a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip that had stalled over key issues, particularly the extent to which Israeli forces would remain in the territory during a truce.
