Israel bombs targets in Lebanon – media

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reportedly carried out airstrikes against multiple targets in southern Lebanon, multiple news outlets reported in the early hours of Sunday.

Israeli officials earlier vowed to retaliate after 12 people were killed when a rocket hit a football field in the occupied Golan Heights. 

According to Al Jazeera, explosions were heard in the coastal city of Tyre and several villages along the Israel-Lebanon border.

The tensions flared up on Saturday when a rocket struck the Druze village of Majdal Shams. The Israeli government blamed Hezbollah for the attack, the victims of which were mostly children. The Lebanon-based pro-Palestinian armed group, however, rejected the accusations.

Israeli politicians made strongly worded statements throughout the day, condemning Hezbollah, whose forces have been firing rockets and mortar shells at Israeli military and civilian targets in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. 

“There is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, warning that the country was at the brink of “an all-out war” with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel is heavily striking Lebanon right now!! pic.twitter.com/p8kP7kMJxw

— ari 𓂆 (@falastinerkive) July 27, 2024

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the commander of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Aroldo Lazaro, released a joint statement on Sunday, calling “the parties to exercise maximum restraint and to put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire.”

The escalation “could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief,” they said.