Israel set to counter Hezbollah following terror attack: 'response will be swift, harsh and painful'

JERUSALEM – The looming Israeli response against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist movement in Lebanon is said to be imminent in response to the group’s rocket attack on a children’s soccer field on Saturday, resulting in the murders of 12 young people. 

Early Monday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reportedly executed a drone strike in southern Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of two Hezbollah terrorists. The IDF has not commented on the strike. The IDF drone attacks came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a three-hour cabinet meeting on Sunday, during which ministers authorized the prime minister and his minister of defense to determine the “manner and timing” of a military response to the lethal Hezbollah attack.

Danny Danon, Israel’s new ambassador to the United Nations, told “Fox and Friends” host Steve Doocy on Monday that, Israel’s “response will be swift, harsh and painful, and we are now picking the targets and I believe in the next few days, and I’m sure Hezbollah will learn their lesson.” He also said Israel had no “intentions of a full war.” 

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U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday.

 “The Secretary reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iranian-backed terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah. He emphasized the importance of preventing escalation of the conflict and discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to allow citizens on both sides of the border between Israel and Lebanon to return home,” Miller said.

The Jerusalem Post reported that French President Emmanuel Macron told Netanyahu that France was “fully committed to doing everything possible to avoid new escalation in the region by sending messages to all parties in the conflict.” France, in contrast to other major European powers, Germany and Britain, has not classified Hezbollah’s entire movement as a terrorist entity. Israel and the U.S. have urged France to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

Air France has suspended flights to and from Beirut due to the expectation a major war will unfold. German airline Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines and Eurowings have also suspended flights.

Israel’s Druze community is still reeling from the shocking violence carried out by Hezbollah. 

The scenes on Sunday were ones of sadness, shock and devastation as the residents of the mostly Druze village of Majdal Shams buried the young victims of the Hezbollah rocket attack that killed at least 12 and injured some 29 others – mostly ages between 10 and 20 as many of them innocently played soccer on Saturday.

The Druze trace their ancestry back to the Biblical figure Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Israeli Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.” The Druze speak Arabic but are not Muslim and are very secretive about their religious beliefs, according to the TPS news agency.

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Speaking at a press conference on Sunday in Japan, Blinken said “I emphasize (Israel’s) 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,” according to Reuters.

Blinken also said he was in talks with the U.S. and all but confirmed that it was Hezbollah that fired the rocket from Lebanon. U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on Sunday, “This attack was conducted by Lebanese Hezbollah. It was their rocket, and launched from an area they control. It should be universally condemned.”

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The failure to identify the U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah as the perpetrator of the Saturday massacre in the X post of the American Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew sparked criticism on the social media platform on Sunday.

David Wurmser, a former senior adviser for nonproliferation and Middle East strategy for former Vice President Dick Cheney, wrote in response to Lew’s message on X, “If I didn’t know better by your statement, it appears the attack kind of spontaneously happened by an evil missile acting on its own.”

The European Union’s foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, faced similar criticism for not pinning the blame on Hezbollah for its use of an Iranian rocket to murder children.

During an operational briefing on Sunday, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said of Hezbollah that “despite their ridiculous denials … they will bear a heavy price for their actions.”

Hezbollah-linked media was first to report Hezbollah’s boasting about the attack, only for the terror group to later claim it was not them who did it once the barbarity of the attack became clear. The Israelis put the blame squarely on the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

The IDF said approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing into Israel from Lebanon on Saturday. The U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah is the de facto ruler over Lebanon. 

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Israel’s TPS news agency reported that the IDF raised its readiness for war. During a tour of the area, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said, “We are greatly increasing our readiness for the next stage of fighting in the north, as we are simultaneously fighting in Gaza. We know how to attack even very far from the State of Israel. There will be more challenges, we will raise our readiness.

“We know exactly where the rocket was launched from. We examined here on the wall of the soccer field the remains of the rocket, and we know to say that it is a Falaq rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead. This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever fires such a rocket into an urban area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children,” Halevi said.

FDD Iran Senior Fellow Behnam Ben Taleblu said the rocket came from Iran, “There should be no surprise that the munition Hezbollah fired at Israel is Iranian in design and origin. After all, when Iranian officials say death to Israel, they mean it. The weapon used in the latest attack is a spin-stabilized artillery rocket called the Falaq-1, which has a range of 10km while carrying a 50kg warhead.”