Netanyahu vows to retaliate against Hizbollah after deadly attack

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Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to retaliate against the Lebanon-based Hizbollah militia group after a deadly rocket strike in the north of Israel on Saturday killed a dozen civilians.

Israel has said the Iran-backed paramilitary force is behind the attack, after months of cross-border fire between the two sides since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict last October.

“I can say that the state of Israel will not let this pass in silence. We will not overlook this,” the Israeli prime minister said in a video message on Saturday from Washington, ahead of his planned return to Israel.

Other Israeli political and military leaders have also vowed to respond forcefully against what they have described as the deadliest assault on Israeli civilians since Hamas’s October 7 attack on the Jewish state triggered war in Gaza.

Hizbollah began to fire on northern Israel the day after that attack, saying it was acting in “solidarity” with the Palestinian militant group.

The rocket on Saturday struck a football pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the occupied Golan Heights, where children and teenagers were congregating, according to Israeli health authorities. Twelve people were killed and 20 more injured.

Visiting the town on Sunday morning, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said: “We will ensure Hizbollah, the proxy of Iran, pays a price for this loss.”

Hardliners in Netanyahu’s coalition government demanded even more, with ultranationalist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posting pictures of the slain civilians to social media site X and writing: “We will not rest until we take revenge on the despicable terrorists who mercilessly beat and slaughtered our children.”

Hizbollah on Saturday denied responsibility for the strike. The group controls southern Lebanon and has been trading cross-border fire with Israel for nearly 10 months. Hizbollah “had absolutely nothing to do with the incident and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard”, the group said in a statement.

The Israeli military said the Iranian-built Falaq 1 rocket was fired from southern Lebanon. On Sunday Israeli air strikes targeted what military officials said were Hizbollah weapons caches and “terrorist infrastructure,” primarily near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre.

Netanyahu is expected to convene his security cabinet upon his return from Washington later on Sunday. Israel’s military chief Herzi Halevi said that the Israel Defense Forces was “raising its readiness ahead of the next stage” of fighting in northern Israel, as it simultaneously continues its campaign in Gaza.

The Lebanese government on Saturday condemned “all acts of violence and attacks against all civilians” and called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts”. In a statement, it stressed that “targeting civilians is a flagrant violation of international law and contradicts the principles of humanity”.

Additional reporting by Raya Jalabi in Beirut