Lebanon receives int’l assurances of ‘limited’ Israeli response to Majdal Shams attack

BEIRUT

Lebanon said Sunday that it received international assurances that an Israeli strike in response to a rocket attack in the Druze town of Majdal Shams will be “limited,” as will the response from Hezbollah.  

While Israel has blamed Hezbollah for Saturday’s attack, the Lebanese group denied responsibility.

“The United States does not support expanding the war, but if Israel wants to do so, America will not stop it and will not halt its supply of weapons,” Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said in an interview with the Lebanese Al-Jadeed channel.

“We have received assurances from the concerned countries that the Israeli response will be limited, as will Hezbollah’s response,” added Bou Habib.

He also noted that Hezbollah is the one fighting in the war against Israel, not the Lebanese state.

“It is both laughable and tragic that Israel, which has committed massacres in Gaza, wants to defend civilians in the occupied Syrian Golan…and we condemn any aggression against civilians anywhere,” Bou Habib said.

The Golan Heights is located in southwestern Syria and is of great strategic importance. Israel has occupied it since the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981, a move not recognized by the United Nations, which considers this land part of Syria.

After a four-hour emergency meeting, the Israeli Security Cabinet on Sunday authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to determine the manner and timing of attacking Hezbollah.

Fears have grown about a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah amid an exchange of cross-border attacks between the two sides. The escalation comes against the backdrop of a deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza, which has killed more than 39,300 people since last October, following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul

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