Ministers authorise Netanyahu to order retaliation for deadly Golan strike
Israel has vowed retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon on Sunday
Israeli ministers authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence chief Sunday to decide on the “manner and timing” of a response to a rocket strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teens, and which Israel and the United States blamed on Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Israel has vowed retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon during the day on Sunday and reportedly shelled sites there just after midnight Monday, as Lebanon braced for Israel’s expected reprisal and diplomats scrambled to keep the conflict from snowballing.
Members of the Druze community held funerals Sunday for 11 of the 12 young victims of the strike on a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams, amid fury and grief over the tragedy, which occurred just steps from a bomb shelter, and already sky-high tensions sparked by 10 months of nearly daily rocket attacks on northern Israel and tit-for-tat strikes in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met Sunday night with members of the high-level security cabinet to discuss Israel’s response to the Saturday attack.
According to the Prime Minister’s office, during the four-hour meeting, lawmakers voted to give Netanyahu and Gallant authority to decide on the scale and timing of Israel’s response to yesterday’s deadly rocket attack in the Golan.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, hardliners who have pushed to ratchet up the severity of reprisal actions, both abstained from the vote, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
During the summit, ministers were all given ample time to speak after many of them complained about the cursory manner in which a strike on Yemen was approved a week earlier, the news outlet reported
Ministers also discussed ongoing hostage talks with the Hamas terror group, which are expected to be affected by Israel’s response, but another meeting on that subject is still planned, Yedioth reported.
Hezbollah said on Saturday that it had launched a Falaq rocket at an IDF base near Majdal Shams, though since reports emerged of civilian casualties in the northern town, the terror group has changed course and denied involvement.
But Israel said the rocket was an Iranian-made missile fired from an area of southern Lebanon, placing the blame squarely on Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
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