Responses to Hezbollah Rocket Massacre Include Outrage, Denial… and Fear

July 29, 2024

by: Joshua Spurlock ~ The Mideast Update

Monday, 29 July 2024 | For 10 months, Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists have invited a great catastrophe by firing rockets indiscriminately at Israel. On Saturday, the long-feared nightmare exploded violently onto an Israeli soccer field, murdering at least 12 children.

The oldest of the Israeli–Arab victims—all members of the Druze Muslim community—was just 16 years old, and the youngest was 10 years of age. The shock at what occurred in the Israeli town of Majdal Shams quickly led to a range of responses from around the world.

Outrage

After months of threats and warnings to Hezbollah to stop shooting at Israel, Saturday’s massacre led to blunt anger in Israel, including an escalation in rhetoric from Israeli officials. A summary of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on Saturday to Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif said the Israeli leader “made it clear that Israel will not overlook this murderous attack and that Hezbollah will pay a heavy price which it has not paid up to now.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, recapping his own Saturday discussion with Tarif in an Israeli press release, said, “During our discussion I stopped and emphasized—we will hit the enemy hard.”

As for the level to which Israel should respond, Israeli diplomat Fares Saeb, who had relatives killed in the massacre, had his own thoughts. He posted to X on Sunday, “#Hezbollah must be eliminated (better by the Lebanese).”

At a local level, anger also rages. Druze radio show host Samir Halabi, who is from Majdal Shams, was quoted by the Times of Israel as telling journalists on Sunday that “Lebanon needs to burn. [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah needs to burn!”

Denial

In an unusual move, Hezbollah strongly denied any involvement in the rocket attack. In a report by pro-Hezbollah Al Manar, the news group listed out a dozen different attacks on Saturday—including a rocket attack involving the same type of rocket that hit Majdal Shams allegedly fired at an Israeli military base. Then the report said the Islamic Resistance “categorically” denied involvement in the Majdal Shams attack with “no connection to the incident whatsoever.”

Israel, however, presented clear evidence showing Hezbollah to be behind the attack. On Sunday, IDF [Israel Defense Forces] spokesperson Daniel Hagari posted to X images of the rocket’s shrapnel from the attack site comparing the rocket pieces to an Iranian-made Falaq rocket.

As IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi told the Druze community in comments posted to the IDF website on Sunday, “We know exactly where the rocket was launched from today. We examined the remains of the rocket here on the wall of the soccer field. We know to say that it is a Falaq rocket with a 53 kg. [117 lbs.] warhead. This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever launches such a rocket into a built-up area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children.”

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein posted to X on Sunday to clarify the significance of the Falaq-type of rocket. “Contrary to its denials, Hezbollah is the entity that is unequivocally responsible for yesterday’s massacre. The rocket that murdered our boys and girls was an Iranian rocket and Hezbollah is the only terror organization which has those in its arsenal. Saturday’s massacre constitutes the crossing of all red lines by Hezbollah. This is not an army fighting another army; rather it is a terrorist organization deliberately shooting at civilians.”

The Mideast Update spoke via email with Professor Eyal Zisser, Tel Aviv University Vice Rector and a lecturer at the Middle East History department and the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies, who said Hezbollah is denying their involvement due to the ethnicity of those killed. Zisser noted many of the Druze in the area where the attack happened see themselves as Syrians—an ally of Hezbollah. This is because the territory was controlled by Syria before Israel regained control in the 1967 defensive war. Given the ethnicity of the slain children, Zisser said the incident is “an embarrassment” for Hezbollah.

Given Hezbollah’s assault on various targets in the region the day of the attack, it’s possible the Majdal Shams attack was a launch that missed its target and hit the soccer field instead—but it’s a hit that wouldn’t have happened if Hezbollah hadn’t been firing at the area in the first place. Said Zisser, “I believe it was a mistake, but once you start playing with fire this is the result. You can’t always control the level of the fire.”

Fear

The international response to the incident was a mix of horror and fear that Israel would spark an even broader Middle East war with their response, with one Western leader after another urging “restraint.”

United Kingdom Foreign Minister David Lammey said on X that the UK condemned the attack and has “been clear” that Hezbollah must stop their 10-month-long campaign of attacks against Israel. He also noted, “We are deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation and destabilization.”

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on his X feed on Saturday described the attack as “shocking” and a “bloodbath” and called for an international investigation. He also said they “urge all parties to exercise utmost restraint and avoid further escalation.”

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in a post on X, urged its citizens to leave Lebanon on Saturday, calling the situation “tense and unpredictable.”

Even United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a press briefing published by the State Department on Sunday, balanced his condemnation of the attack with concern about where it is heading. He noted the US was in conversations with Israel and said, “I emphasize its right to defend its citizens and our determination to make sure that they’re able to do that.  But we also don’t want to see the conflict escalate. We don’t want to see it spread.”

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeeping group was even more blunt in their warning on X: “We urge the parties to exercise maximum restraint & to put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire. It could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief.”

On Saturday, the same day the world began to send a mix of condemnation with warnings to Israel not to respond, despite being the victim, Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke on what Israel most needed from the international community.

In comments published by Israel, Herzog said, “Hezbollah terrorists brutally attacked and murdered children today, whose only crime was going out to play soccer. They did not return. The world cannot continue to sit in silence in the face of Nasrallah’s terror attacks, which come at the behest of the empire of evil in Iran. The State of Israel will firmly defend its citizens and its sovereignty.”

Posted on July 29, 2024

Source: (This article was originally published by The Mideast Update on July 28, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today.)

Photo Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit/commons.wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia