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The Biden administration is highly concerned that a rocket attack from Lebanon that killed 12 people in the Golan Heights could lead to an all out war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.S. officials tell Axios.

The big picture: The administration for months has worried that both Israel and Hezbollah are miscalculating as they escalate their rhetoric and fighting on the ground while thinking they can avoid an all-out war.

U.S. officials are also concerned that without a ceasefire in Gaza, a war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group is becoming more likely, which would exacerbate the regional crisis and draw the U.S. deeper into the conflict.
"What happened today could be the trigger we have been worried about and tried to avoid for 10 months," a U.S. official told Axios.

Driving the news: The IDF said twelve people were killed and more than 30 were wounded when a rocket exploded in a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.

IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Hezbollah was responsible for the attack.
Hezbollah denied it fired the rocket and said it had no connection to the incident.

Hagari called it the "most serious targeting" of Israeli civilians since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

An IDF official told reporters in a briefing that Hezbollah fired a rocket with an unusually large warhead in retaliation for an Israeli strike earlier on Saturday that killed four members of the Lebanese militant group.

Hagari said it was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 rocket with a 100-pound warhead and that only Hezbollah holds such rockets in Lebanon. A U.S. official said the U.S. assessment is that the rocket was fired by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah officials told the UN the incident was the result of an Israeli anti-rocket interceptor hitting the soccer field, a U.S. official said. The IDF denied that was what happened.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz told Axios "the Hezbollah attack crossed all red lines and the response will be accordingly."

The latest: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Sheikh Muafak Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, and said Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for the attack, the Prime Minister's office said.

The Israeli security cabinet will convene on Sunday to discuss the response to the attack.

Israeli law requires the security cabinet to approve military operations that could lead to war.

Acting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikatti condemned "all acts of violence and aggression against all civilians" and called for an immediate halt to violence.

President Biden's advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein spoke to Israeli and Lebanese officials after the rocket attack.

Hochstein expressed concern about the situation to Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Jumblatt said in a statement that he told Hochstein the U.S. needs to stop the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and Gaza.
State of play: The incident happened amid intense negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team with White House officials over the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal proposal.

Netanyahu's office said he will depart Washington this evening, hours earlier than planned.
UNIFIL Commander is in touch with Israel and Lebanon to decrease tensions in the area, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force said.

What they're saying: A White House National Security Council spokesperson condemned the attack as "horrific."

"Our hearts go out to the families of those who lost loved ones today, and we are praying for a speedy recovery for those who have been injured," the spokesperson added.

"Israel continues to face severe threats to its security, as the world saw today, and the United States will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority.

Israeli forces attacked a school that was being used as a field hospital and a shelter in central Deir el-Balah, killing at least 30 people, including 15 children.

Israel’s military bombed villages and towns in south and east Lebanon after accusing Hezbollah of firing a rocket that killed 12 young people from the Druze community in the town of Majdal Shams in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Lebanese group denied all responsibility for the rocket attack.

A trauma surgeon who worked at a hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis accused Israel of deliberately targeting children. “We regularly saw, on a daily basis, children shot in the head and chest,” said Feroze Sidhwa.

Hezbollah will pay price for Majdal Shams attack: Israel’s Gallant
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says his country mourns for “the innocent boys and girls killed” in the Golan Heights, referring to a rocket that reportedly killed 12 people a day earlier in the Syrian region occupied by Israel.

Israel said it would strike hard against Hezbollah after accusing the Lebanese group of killing children and teenagers in the attack that hit a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams.

“There are 150,000 Druze in Israel, as well as millions of Jews and Arab Israelis. We live side by side and all suffer from Hezbollah’s terror. We will ensure Hezbollah, the proxy of Iran, pays a price for this loss,” Gallant said on X.

His comments came despite Hezbollah denying any responsibility for the strike.

^^ As far as I know, most of these Druze (in Golan Heights) don't even hold an Israeli citizenship. They're Syrian villagers under Israeli governance.

Saturday’s tragic rocket attack on Majdal Shams, which claimed the lives of 12 children and teens at a soccer match, underscored the fragile security situation in the Golan Heights while highlighting the intricate dynamics of the Druze community in the border region that Israel captured from Syria in 1967.

The deadly attack was attributed by the IDF and US intelligence to Hezbollah, which denied responsibility. It was the single deadliest attack since the Iran-backed terror group began striking northern Israel on October 8.

The Druze population of the plateau is characterized by a complex political status within Israeli society: The region, captured by Israel from Syria during the Six Day War, was formally annexed in 1981. The Israeli move, however, has not obtained international recognition except for that of the US under president Donald Trump in 2019.

Located in the southern foothills of Mount Hermon with a population of nearly 12,000, Majdal Shams is the largest of four Druze settlements in the plateau. Together with the other three towns — Ein Qiniyye, Mas’ade, and Buq’ata — the overall Druze population in the Golan stands today at 20,000, living alongside about 50,000 Jewish Israelis.

The Druze of the Golan zealously maintained their Syrian identity after 1967 and have resisted and refused offers of Israeli citizenship.

Elsewhere in Israel, the Druze, an ethno-religious group known for its secretive and insular nature, accepted Israeli sovereignty after the state’s founding in 1948 and generally identify as Israelis. Men from these Druze communities serve in the IDF.

Most Druze of the Golan have opted for permanent residency, out of concern that their acceptance of Israeli sovereignty might endanger their family members across the border in Syria. There is also some fear the community could be accused of treason by Damascus authorities should the region be returned to Syria, according to Col. (Ret.) Sarit Zehavi, founder of the Alma Center, an Israeli research institute focused on the security challenges in the north.

After 1967, the Syrian regime actively encouraged the preservation of tight links with the Golan Druze, supporting commercial ties, for instance with the cross-border sale of produce, and allowing Druze residents of the Golan to study for free in Syrian academic institutions.

There have been family reunifications between Druze on either side of the border as well as marriages linking families that are today in two separate warring countries, as portrayed in the acclaimed 2004 Israeli movie “The Syrian Bride,” set mostly in Majdal Shams.

However, with the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, things began to change.

Pragmatic Israeli citizenship
While the Golan Druze held repeated rallies to publicly display their loyalty to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, and in 2015 even attacked ambulances carrying wounded Syrians into Israel for treatment, believing them to be opposition fighters, many began to feel that ties with Damascus were fraying, or even that the regime had sold them out.

Consequently, increasing numbers of residents began to apply for Israeli passports, including many young people for whom Syria was an abstract place they heard about in family stories.

In 2022, the Israeli nonprofit news organization Shomrim obtained official government figures showing an uptick in citizenship requests filed by Druze residents of the Golan over the past years, a trend that experts attributed to pragmatic reasons, rather than identification with the state.

In 2021, the number of applications stood at 239, compared to 75 in 2017 and merely four in 2010. Interior Ministry figures in 2022 showed that 4,300 members of the community held Israeli citizenship, about 20% of the total.

Druze residents of the Golan today enjoy the benefits of Israeli residency, such as access to healthcare, education, and other social services, and freedom of movement inside Israel. At the same time, they also face significant challenges, such as difficulties in receiving building permits, maintaining ties with their families across the border, and traveling abroad for those who do not have Israeli passports.

A wind turbine project in the Golan triggered massive demonstrations by local Druze residents last summer, who saw the project as a threat to their agrarian way of life, an encroachment on ancestral lands to which they feel an almost sacred bond, and solidification of what they view as Israel’s occupation of the territory.

The project, the latest episode in the history of tense relations between the Jewish state and the recalcitrant minority, was eventually mothballed following repeated clashes with the police and outcry from community leaders.

Fraying ties with Assad regime
Allegiance to Damascus is also increasingly under question. While Bashar Assad was once perceived as the protector of the current and former Druze citizens in Syria and the Golan, both communities have been losing patience with the Iran-backed regime.

Claims that the Assad regime has sold out the Golan Druze resurfaced in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s bloody rocket attack on Majdal Shams.

At a small rally held in the Syrian Druze town of Al Sweida on Sunday – a hotbed of opposition to the regime in recent months – residents held placards blaming the regime for “selling” the Golan, and Hezbollah for “killing children”.

The Druze of Al Sweida have staged regular demonstrations against the regime since last August, sparked by the rising inflation and the removal of government subsidies.

As their grievances have gone beyond economic concerns, protesters have been demanding the toppling of the Assad regime and Iran’s withdrawal from the country.

Israeli ministers authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense chief Sunday to decide on the “manner and timing” of a response to a rocket strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teens, and which Israel and the United States blamed on Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

Israel has vowed retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon during the day on Sunday and reportedly shelled sites there just after midnight Monday, as Lebanon braced for Israel’s expected reprisal and diplomats scrambled to keep the conflict from snowballing.

Members of the Druze community held funerals Sunday for 11 of the 12 young victims of the strike on a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams, amid fury and grief over the tragedy, which occurred just steps from a bomb shelter, and already sky-high tensions sparked by 10 months of nearly daily rocket attacks on northern Israel and tit-for-tat strikes in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met Sunday night with members of the high-level security cabinet to discuss Israel’s response to the Saturday attack.

According to the Prime Minister’s office, during the four-hour meeting, lawmakers voted to give Netanyahu and Gallant authority to decide on the scale and timing of Israel’s response to yesterday’s deadly rocket attack in the Golan.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, hardliners who have pushed to ratchet up the severity of reprisal actions, both abstained from the vote, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

During the summit, ministers were all given ample time to speak after many of them complained about the cursory manner in which a strike on Yemen was approved a week earlier, the news outlet reported

Ministers also discussed ongoing hostage talks with the Hamas terror group, which are expected to be affected by Israel’s response, but another meeting on that subject is still planned, Yedioth reported.

Hezbollah said on Saturday that it had launched a Falaq rocket at an IDF base near Majdal Shams, though since reports emerged of civilian casualties in the northern town, the terror group has changed course and denied involvement.

But Israel said the rocket was an Iranian-made missile fired from an area of southern Lebanon, placing the blame squarely on Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

As thousands of residents of Majdal Shams gathered for the funerals of 10 of the 12 children killed in the rocket strike Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces released evidence showing shrapnel found at the soccer field matching an Iranian-made Falaq-1 rocket, which in Lebanon is exclusively used by Hezbollah.

The Iranian-made Falaq-1 has a 50-kilogram warhead and a range of 10 kilometers, according to the IDF.

The IDF published the flight path of the heavy rocket, showing it was launched from the Chebaa area in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu, who had been in the US for meetings with US President Joe Biden, US Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, landed in Israel in the middle of the day on Sunday having moved up his return flight in the wake of Saturday’s deadly strike, and convened the security cabinet to decide on Israel’s response to the terror attack.

Various officials and reports on Sunday suggested the government was expected to approve a major retaliation. One Israeli official told the Haaretz newspaper that Hezbollah’s response to such retaliation in Lebanon would determine the extent of escalation in the north.

“We will have to wait and see,” said the official, shortly after the security cabinet convened.

Western diplomats told the Hebrew daily that there was a significant effort underway to head off an Israeli reaction that would spark a full-blown war with Lebanon.

The US said Washington has been in discussions with Israeli and Lebanese counterparts since Saturday’s “horrific” attack and that it was working on a diplomatic solution.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington did not want further escalation of the conflict, which has seen daily exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah along the border.

It’s so important that we help defuse that conflict, not only prevent it from escalating, prevent it from spreading, but to defuse it because you have so many people in both countries, in both Israel and Lebanon, who’ve been displaced from their homes,” Blinken said.

The White House has also blamed Hezbollah for the Majdal Shams strike. “This attack was conducted by Lebanese Hezbollah. It was their rocket, and launched from an area they control,” it said in a statement.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, said through her national security adviser that her “support for Israel’s security is ironclad.”

Britain also expressed concern at further escalation while Egypt said the attack could spill “into a comprehensive regional war.”

the ground, thousands of people gathered for funerals in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.

Members of the Druze faith, which is related to Islam, Christianity and Judaism, make up more than half the 40,000-strong population of the Golan Heights. Large crowds of mourners, many in traditional high white and red Druze headwear, surrounded the caskets as they were carried through the village.

“A heavy tragedy, a dark day has come to Majdal Shams,” said Dolan Abu Saleh, head of the Majdal Shams local council, in comments broadcast on Israeli television.

Both sides have appeared to be avoiding an escalation that could lead to all-out war, potentially dragging in other powers including the United States and Iran, but Saturday’s strike threatened to tip the standoff into a more dangerous phase. United Nations officials urged maximum restraint from both sides, warning that escalation could “engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief.”

Lebanon has asked the US to urge restraint by Israel, Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, told Reuters. Bou Habib said the US had asked Lebanon’s government to pass on a message to Hezbollah to show restraint as well.

Two security sources in Lebanon told Reuters that Hezbollah was on high alert and had cleared some key sites in both Lebanon’s south and the eastern Bekaa Valley in case of an Israeli attack.

Hezbollah has a strong presence in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria, and in south Lebanon, where it has been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, saying it is doing so to support Gaza during the war there.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said pro-Iran groups and Hezbollah-affiliated fighters had “evacuated their positions” south of the capital and in the Damascus countryside on Sunday, as well as in parts of the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights, in anticipation of “potential Israeli airstrikes.”

Hezbollah had already abandoned positions in Syria in early June after Israeli raids, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines said it was delaying the arrival of some flights from Sunday night to Monday morning, without stating why. It later delayed more flights both arriving in Beirut and taking off from there, saying the moves were “due to technical reasons related to the distribution of insurance risks for aircraft between Lebanon and other destinations.”

Beirut Rafic Hariri Airport, Lebanon’s only international facility, was hit early in the last war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

Former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, head of the centrist now-opposition National Union party, said on Sunday that Israel must react to the Majdal Shams attack extensively, stressing that this could include “hitting Lebanon hard and also tearing Lebanon apart.”

Speaking to Channel 12 news, Gantz added: “The IDF is ready. I assume that is what we will see.”

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey might enter Israel as it had done in the past in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, though he did not spell out what sort of intervention he was suggesting.

Erdogan, who has been a fierce critic of Israel's offensive in Gaza, started discussing that war during a speech praising his country's defence industry.

"We must be very strong so that Israel can't do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them," Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party in his hometown of Rize.

"There is no reason why we cannot do this ... We must be strong so that we can take these steps," Erdogan added in the televised address.

AK Party representatives did not respond to calls asking for more detail on Erdogan's comments. Israel did not immediately make any comment.

The president appeared to be referring to past actions by Turkey.

In 2020, Turkey sent military personnel to Libya in support of the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord of Libya.

Israeli Military Police officers raided the Sde Teiman detention center on Monday and detained nine soldiers on suspicion of abusing a Palestinian detainee. Following reports of the detention of the soldiers, dozens of protesters, including Knesset members, broke into the base, and protested against the detention of the soldiers.

According to a security source, the Palestinian detainee was taken to a hospital with severe injuries to an intimate body part – injuries that left him without the ability to walk.

A security source added that a confrontation developed between military police personnel and some of the soldiers, who refused to evacuate and barricaded themselves in the facility. Some soldiers reportedly sprayed pepper spray at the military personnel that arrived to detain the suspects.

One soldier was recorded saying: "We will unite against the IDF arresting our fellow soldiers". Some soldiers reportedly sprayed pepper spray at the military personnel that arrived to detain the suspects.

Another soldier said: "The military police came to arrest us because we are responsible for Nukhba terrorists. Every Israeli should go out into the streets for us, I am not ready for this shame that they are arresting me- I gave my life for you, for my country."

After reports of the detention of the soldiers circulated, some Knesset members, IDF reservists and other Israelis arrived at the base to protest their detention. Among the protesters was MK Zvi Succot, a member of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionist party.

Succot was filmed leading a group of protesters to the gate of the base, confronting soldiers guarding the gate, and forcing his way through. A stream of protesters then rushed through the gate, chanting slogans against the detention of the soldiers.

A second wave of protesters rushed through the gates, as other Knesset members arrived at the scene, including Otzma Yehudit MK and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, and the protesters were seen wandering the facility unchecked.

A group of protesters began marching towards the detention center within the base, and were filmed at the gate of the facility, banging on the gate and trying to force their way in.

Police then arrived at the base, and escorted the protesters back outside the gate, where the protest continued.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he "strongly condemns" the attempt to break into Sde Teiman, and called for "immediate calming of spirits."

IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi said that "the incident of breaking into the Sde Teiman base is extremely serious and against the law. Breaking into a military base and disturbing the order is serious behavior that is not acceptable in any way. We are at war, and actions of this kind endanger the security of the country. I strongly condemn the incident and we are working to restore order at the base."

Halevi continued, saying he gives his "full support to the military prosecutor's office and military police in the investigation of every incident that is brought to their attention. This is their duty, regardless of rank or position. It is precisely these investigations that protect our soldiers in Israel and the world and preserve the values of the IDF. These investigations are carried out while preserving the honor of our soldiers."

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that he "fully respects the soldiers who are tasked with imprisoning Hamas terrorists," but that "we must allow the authorized parties to carry out the necessary investigations while maintaining the dignity of our soldiers. Even when you're angry, the laws bind everyone: do not break into IDF bases and do not violate the laws of the State of Israel."

The soldiers detained by military police belong to a unit known as "Force 100" that was re-established at the beginning of the war and is believed to have been tasked with guarding the detainees at Sde Teiman.

Testimonies obtained by Haaretz indicate that the unit's members were involved in several violent incidents in recent months. For example, a soldier who served Sde Teiman said that the unit used violence towards the detainees, saying that "on one occasion they told everyone to lie down on the floor and immediately threw a stun grenade in the middle of the cell, then kicked them violently."

The testimony also said the soldiers would occasionally pull detainees aside and violently abuse them, saying "they beat them with clubs, I saw broken teeth and ribs."

Israel Justice Minister Yariv Levin said he was "shocked to see harsh pictures of soldiers being arrested," and said it was "impossible to accept this."

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir responded to the reports of the detentions, saying, "the spectacle of military police officers coming to arrest our best heroes in the Sde Teiman detention facility is nothing less than shameful. I recommend the defense minister, the IDF chief of staff and the military authorities to back up the fighters and learn from the prison service: light treatment of terrorists is over. Soldiers need to have our full support."

The Israeli army blew up a drinking water reservoir in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Monday.

A force from the 401st Brigade of the Armored Corps “blew up the central reservoir last week on the orders of the brigade commanders,” the Israeli daily Haaretz said.

One of the soldiers posted a video of the explosion on social media with the caption “Destruction of the Tel Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat,” it noted.

The daily claimed that the blowing happened “without receiving permission from the senior level of the Southern Command,”

The army “is conducting an investigation into a suspected violation of international law, following the explosion of a drinking water reservoir in Rafah by a force operating in the area,” the paper noted.

Haaretz reported that at the end of the initial investigation, a decision will be made on whether to open an investigation by the Investigating Military Police.

The water reservoir, which was blown up using explosive devices, is located in the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, most of which was not evacuated by the army, it added.

“The neighborhood, which is located in the northwest of Rafah, is near the humanitarian areas that the army has defined as safe to stay,” the media outlet alleged.

The Israeli military refused to comment, but military sources confirmed the details, it said.

With the region on edge ahead of an expected Israeli retaliation against Hezbollah for a deadly rocket strike on Saturday, Western diplomats urged de-escalation, while Israeli officials suggested that the response would be serious but not lead to an all-out conflagration.

Israeli officials speaking to Reuters said Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah, but not drag the Middle East into regional war, while other Israeli officials told the wire service that the IDF is preparing for the possibility of a few days of fighting with the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Majdal Shams on Monday, saying that “these children are our children; they are all the children of all of us.”

Netanyahu said that “Israel will not and cannot let this simply pass on by. Our response will come, and it will be harsh"

A diplomatic Israeli source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that “the estimation is that the response will not lead to an all-out war… That would not be in our interest at this point.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with President Isaac Herzog on Monday to urge Israel and Hezbollah step back from any escalation.

Lebanese officials have held a flurry of calls with Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to US President Joe Biden who frequently handles delicate negotiations in Lebanon, also seeking to tamp down on escalation, according to an unnamed Lebanese diplomat.

The White House later reiterated its stance that Israel has every right to respond to Hezbollah following Saturday’s attack, but that it was “confident” that a wider conflagration could be avoided.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that US and Israeli officials had conversations at “multiple levels” over the weekend, and that the risk of a full-blown conflict is “exaggerated.”

“Nobody wants a broader war, and I’m confident that we’ll be able to avoid such an outcome,” Kirby said in a call with reporters. “We all heard about this ‘all-out war’ at multiple points over the last 10 months, those predictions were exaggerated then, quite frankly, we think they’re exaggerated now.”

The UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon said it had intensified contacts with Israel and Lebanese authorities to dial down tensions. “Nobody wants to start a wider conflict, but a miscalculation could trigger one. There is still space for a diplomatic solution,” UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.

A Western diplomat whose country is involved in diplomatic efforts to prevent a major escalation, told The Associated Press that he does not believe the Israeli response will result in a full-throttle war.

“It’s clear that [Israel] wants to take a stance, but without leading to a generalized conflict,” the anonymous diplomat said. “It’s sure that there will be a retaliation. It will be symbolic. It may be spectacular, but it will not be a reason for both parties to engage in a general escalation.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, meanwhile, threatened that an Israeli attack on Lebanon will have serious consequences for the Jewish state.

Speaking to French President Emanuel Macron, Pezeshkian said that “any possible Israeli attack on Lebanon will have serious consequences for Israel,” according to Iranian state media.

US President Joe Biden refused to support a significant Israeli response to Iran’s massive missile and drone attack in April, telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the time, “If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own,” according to a Tuesday report.

“Take the win,” Biden told the prime minister, The New York Times reported, warning him not to escalate the situation, after an international response coordinated by the US shot down 99% of the some 300 projectiles launched at Israel from Iranian territory.

Israel's military claimed it killed Hezbollah's most senior commander in an airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday, in retaliation for a cross-border rocket attack that killed 12 youngsters three days ago which it blamed on the Lebanese armed group.

A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above Beirut's southern suburbs - a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah - at around 7:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), a Reuters witness said.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the strike killed Fuad Shukr, who "has the blood of many Israelis on his hands. Tonight, we have shown that the blood of our people has a price, and that there is no place out of reach for our forces to this end."

A senior security source from another country in the region confirmed Shukr had died of wounds sustained in the strike.

Israel's military said Shukr was the most important aide to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, his adviser for wartime operations and in charge of Saturday's attack.
The Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut also killed three civilians including two children, medical and security sources told Reuters.

Lebanon's Al Manar TV cited the Lebanese health ministry as reporting 74 people injured along with three killed in the attack around Hezbollah's Shura Council, a decision-making body, in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood.

Reuters footage showed a multi-storey building in the southern suburb that appeared to have a top corner sheared off. Charred debris littered the streets below, where crowds gathered to chant in support of the Hezbollah leader.

UN Special Coordinator Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert called for calm to prevail amid escalating tensions and called on Israel and Lebanon to explore all diplomatic avenues to end hostilities.
"There is no such thing as a military solution," she said in a statement.

Tuesday's strike on Beirut prompted widespread condemnation by Lebanese officials and Hezbollah's regional allies including Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, Syria and Iran, which backs all three of the groups.

The White House, which previously also attributed Saturday's attack to Hezbollah, reiterated its commitment to Israel's security against "all Iran-backed threats including Hezbollah" and said it was working on a diplomatic solution.

The Israeli military said it had issued no new instructions for civil defence in Israel, a possible indication that Israel did not plan further strikes immediately. Channel 12 TV quoted an unnamed official as saying Israel did not want an all-out war.

Israeli media reported that depending on the Hezbollah reaction, the military considered the Beirut strike as concluding the response to the Golan Heights attack.

There were about 25 rockets launched from south Lebanon into northern Israel throughout the day, the Israeli military said. Medics reported a 30-year-old man in the cooperative community of Kibbutz Hagoshrim was killed.

CONCERNS ABOUT ESCALATION
Lebanon's foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, said his government condemned the Israeli strike and planned to file a complaint to the United Nations.

"We were not expecting them to hit Beirut and they hit Beirut," he told Reuters, saying he hoped Hezbollah's response would not trigger an escalation.

"Hopefully any response will be proportionate and will not be more than that, so that this wave of killing, hitting and shelling will stop," he said.

Hours before the strike, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he did not believe a fight was inevitable between Hezbollah and Israel, though he remained concerned about the potential for escalation.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated early on Wednesday morning in Iran, the Palestinian militant group and Tehran said, drawing threats of revenge on Israel in a region already shaken by the war in Gaza and a deepening conflict in Lebanon.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, hours after he attended a swearing in ceremony for the country's new president, and said it was investigating.

Haniyeh, normally based in Qatar, has been the face of Hamas's international diplomacy as the war set off by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 has raged in Gaza. He had been taking part in internationally-brokered indirect talks on reaching a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
Hamas' armed wing said in a statement Haniyeh's killing would "take the battle to new dimensions and have major repercussions". Vowing to retaliate, Iran declared three days of national mourning and said the U.S. bears responsibility because of its support for Israel.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel had provided the grounds for "harsh punishment for itself" and it was Tehran's duty to avenge the Hamas leader's death as it had occurred in the Iranian capital. Iranian forces had already made strikes directly on Israel earlier in the Gaza war.

There was no comment nor claim of responsibility from Israel. The Israeli military said it was assessing the situation but had not issued any new security guidelines for civilians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was expected to meet for consultations with security officials at 4 p.m. (1300 GMT).

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at an event in Singapore, sidestepped a question on Haniyeh's killing, saying a ceasefire deal in Gaza was key to avoiding wider regional escalation.
"I'm not going to speculate on what impact any one event might have on that, I've learned over many years."

He told Channel News Asia that the U.S. had neither been aware of nor involved in the killing.
The assassination, which took place less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed the Hezbollah commander it said was behind a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, appears to set back chances of any imminent ceasefire agreement in the 10-month-old war Gaza

Qatar, which has been brokering talks aimed at halting the fighting in Gaza along with Egypt, condemned Haniyeh's killing as a dangerous escalation of the conflict.

Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on other side?" Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X.

Egypt said it showed a lack of political will on Israel's part to calm tensions. China, Russia, Turkey and Iraq also condemned it.

Iran's top security body met to decide strategy in reaction to the death of Haniyeh, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing and Palestinian factions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank called for a strike and mass demonstrations.

In Israel, the mood was buoyant as Israelis welcomed what they saw as a major achievement in the war against Hamas, though residents in besieged Gaza feared Haniyeh's death would prolong the fighting that has devastated the enclave.

"What a loss. We lost one of our very own," said Gaza resident Fatima Al Saati who was sleeping when news of Haniyeh's death broke. Another neighbour, Hachem Al-Saati, said: "This news is scary. We feel that he was like a father to us."

Family members of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza expressed concern that Haniyeh's assassination would seriously damage negotiations to get their loved ones home.

"Haniyeh could have been killed 15 years ago, and they didn't do it. Why now that there is a deal on the table, did they choose to kill him?" asked Sharon Lifshitz, daughter of hostage Oded Lifshitz.

Naama Weinberg, cousin of hostage Itai Svirsky, whose body is being held in Gaza, said "it appalls me that once again this government chooses to eliminate the terrorists first before rescuing the hostages."

"The choice to eliminate the senior officials before rescuing the hostages was made, the order of priorities was determined," she said.

Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, said that the assassination of Haniyeh must not be the end of negotiations to bring the hostages home, and implored Netanyahu that his "responsibility is first and foremost to return the hostages."

Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated during a visit to Iran in what the terror group claimed was an “airstrike” directly on his room that was conducted by Israel early Wednesday.

Haniyeh, the de-facto face of Hamas, was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president when he was killed “in a Zionist airstrike on his residence,” according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Iran’s supreme leader ordered a direct strike on Israel hours after top Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an airstrike early Wednesday, according to a report Wednesday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued the command during an emergency meeting of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, which convened shortly after the assassination, the New York Times reported, citing three Iranian officials briefed on the matter.

Iran and Hamas both blamed Israel for the deadly airstrike on Haniyeh, though Israel has not commented on the killing.

It was not immediately clear what options Iran forces would pursue, but military commanders are considering a combination of drones and missiles that would target military facilities near Tel Aviv and Haifa, according to the Times, citing the Iranian officials.

The strikes would attempt to avoid civilian casualties, the officials claimed.

Once again, Iran is weighing a coordinated attack that would involve other allied militant groups from Yemen, Syria and Iraq, the newspaper reported.

Khameni also ordered commanders from the Revolutionary Guards and army to get ready an attack and defensive plans in case the conflict widens with either strikes from Israel or the United States hitting the country, the officials said.

Turkey "entering" Israel?????

Okay...the Turks sending an army into Nagoro-Karabach to intervene in the little war between the two former Soviet republics of Azerbijan and Armenia ...which are right on Turkey's border is not a big deal.

And Turkey (probably as part of NATO and acting in concert with the rest of the NATO nations including the US) sending troops across the Mediterranean to Libya is one thing.

But Turkey "entering" (ie invading) Israel...to help Palestine?
That strikes me as something else entirely.

Turkey would have to either march armies through Syria and Lebanon to even reach Israel, or it would have to send amphibious forces on the sea to attack Israel by landing troops on beachheads on Israel's shores-like the Allies did at D-Day in Normandy in WWII. And both the US and Israeli navies would have to just stand by and say "go right ahead and invade Israel".

Erogogen must be smoking hash.

Former Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed by an explosive device that was secretly smuggled into his guesthouse in Tehran, and not by an airstrike, the New York Times reported and the Jerusalem Post has independently confirmed.

The bomb was hidden in June and used cutting-edge remote technology as has been used in the killing of Iran nuclear chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, according to the report and the Post’s sources.

Moreover, the Post has learned that despite reports that Haniyeh was more practical on hostage deal talks than Hamas Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar, in fact recently, Haniyeh has often been more of an obstacle to a final deal, such that his removal could even make a deal more likely.

Iran dealt a great deal of embarrassment
Further, embarrassingly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, they were directly responsible for security at the guesthouse in a large compound called Neshat in a high-end neighborhood in northern Tehran.

It appears that the IRGC or those close to it initially circulated rumors that the attack occurred by drone strike as this could potentially shift more responsibility from the IRGC for the failure of the security measures protecting Haniyeh on other bodies like the air force.

In contrast, the military and the Iranian Intelligence Ministry are often in competition with the IRGC and would want to make it clear that the IRGC was responsible for failing to detect an internally planted bomb, and not other bodies from defending against a drone strike.

It appears that the IRGC or those close to it initially circulated rumors that the attack occurred by drone strike as this could potentially shift more responsibility from the IRGC for the failure of the security measures protecting Haniyeh on other bodies like the air force.

In contrast, the military and the Iranian Intelligence Ministry are often in competition with the IRGC and would want to make it clear that the IRGC was responsible for failing to detect an internally planted bomb, and not other bodies from defending against a drone strike.