The Israel Air Force struck Hezbollah facilities throughout Lebanon Sunday in response to a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed 12 Druze young people on a soccer field in an Israeli town in the Golan Heights. It was the deadliest attack on Israel since October 7, 2023, and stoked fears that the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza might broaden into a war between Israel and Hezbollah in the Hezbollah heartland of the Bekaa Valley.
Yesterday, Hezbollah fired at least two rockets into the Israeli town of Majdal Shams.
BACKGROUND:
Mass Casualty Event in Israel After Hezbollah Rocket Attack
Death Toll Climbs to 12 in Hezbollah Missile Strike on Golan Heights, Officials Worry of Wider War
The town is mostly Druze, who retain Syrian citizenship under the 1981 law annexing the area. and are not drafted into the Israel Defense Forces.
The attack prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to return early from his visit to the United States and immediately meet with his cabinet to plan a response.
The rockets struck a soccer field inside the city.
These are the victims and the mass funeral.
Hezbollah immediately shifted from a "we did it" celebration to playing Sergeant Schultz.
This was followed by terror simps on social media claiming that the rocket was an errant Iron Dome missile.
This account is a pro-Assad account, excluding the fact that it still wasn't all that convincing.
This video appears to show a successful Iron Dome interception. We don't know where or when it was taken; what we do know is that the impact of debris from the interception is not in Majdal Shams.
Here is another video purporting to be the same event, even though it obviously isn't.
Even if both were taken when and where claimed, they definitively prove that nothing from Iron Dome missiles fell in Majdal Shams.
This Israeli response was not long in coming.
Israel’s military said it targeted Hezbollah weapons caches and militant infrastructure in Lebanon overnight, including in the areas of Chabriha, Borj El Chmali, Beqaa, Kfarkela, Rab El Thalathine, Khiam and Tayr Harfa.
Because of the specifics of the attack — the victims were Druze, not Israeli, and it took place in Golan, not Israel-proper — the odds of this being the flashpoint for a wider regional war are limited. One of the unintended consequences may be solidifying Druze support for Israel among those living there and creating an enemy for Hezbollah in Syria.