Lebanon calls for investigation into deadly Golan Heights missile strike
Lebanon is calling for an international investigation into the missile strike on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children on Saturday. Israel says the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which is backed by Iran, was behind the attack.
Lebanese Foreign minister Abdallah Bouhabib wants to see either an international investigation or a meeting of the tripartite committee that includes senior Lebanese and Israeli military officials along with representatives of the UN mission in southern Lebanon, in order to “know the truth about the attack”.
Twelve children aged between 10 and 16 were killed and about 30 others injured in the attack on a football field in Majdal Shams on Saturday. Funerals were held for many of the victims on Sunday.
"A large-scale attack against Lebanon will lead to a deterioration of the situation in the region and provoke a regional war"
The attack was carried out with an Iranian Falaq missile of a type that only Hezbollah uses, the Israeli Foreign ministry said. Israel has already warned that Hezbollah will pay a “heavy price” and carried out strikes on “terror targets” overnight on Saturday, but Bouhabib said that a “large-scale attack against Lebanon will lead to a deterioration of the situation in the region and provoke a regional war”.
Hezbollah denies responsibility for the strike. Bouhabib said he did not believe Hezbollah had deliberately targeted civilians, saying the group had only targeted military positions since the start of the war in Gaza. He suggested that “other organisations” could have been behind the attack, or that it was “an Israeli mistake or a mistake by Hezbollah”.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned early from a visit to the US following the strike and is due to hold a security cabinet meeting today, his office said in a statement.
Earlier on Sunday, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also called for an independent international inquiry.
Mourners carry the coffins and pictures of children killed in a rocket strike from Lebanon, 28 July 2024 © PHOTO MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP
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