Hezbollah on High Alert, Lebanon Asks US to Urge Restraint from Israel

A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
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Hezbollah on High Alert, Lebanon Asks US to Urge Restraint from Israel

A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
A view shows southern Lebanese villages in the background as seen from Tyre, southern Lebanon July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Hezbollah was on high alert on Sunday, two security sources told Reuters, as tensions spiraled following a deadly attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that Israel blamed on the Lebanese armed group.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack. The security sources said Hezbollah had preemptively cleared out some key sites in both Lebanon's south and the eastern Bekaa Valley in the event of a possible attack by Israel.

The Lebanese government has asked the United States to urge restraint from Israel, Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Reuters on Sunday.

Bou Habib said the US had asked the Lebanese government to pass on a message to Hezbollah to show restraint as well. Israel has vowed swift retaliation after a rocket from Lebanon struck a soccer field in the Golan Heights’ village of Majdal Shams, killing 12 children and teens in what the military said was the deadliest attack on civilians since Oct. 7.

Overnight, the Israeli military said it struck a number of targets inside Lebanon, though the intensity of the strikes was similar to months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.



Blinken Says US Does Not Want Escalation on Israel's Northern Border

Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights
Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights
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Blinken Says US Does Not Want Escalation on Israel's Northern Border

Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights
Israeli officials respond after rockets were launched across Lebanon's border with Israel which, according to Israel's ambulance services, people were killed, at a soccer pitch in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Purchase Licensing Rights

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday he does not want to see an escalation of conflict on Israel's northern border after Israel accused Hezbollah of killing 12 children and teenagers in a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel said on Sunday it would strike hard against the Iran-backed group after the incident. Blinken said the US was in talks with Israel about the incident and the indications were that Lebanon-based Hezbollah fired the rocket.

Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the attack.

"I emphasize (Israel's) right to defend its citizens and our determination to make sure that they're able to do that," Blinken said during a news conference in Tokyo. "But we also don't want to see the conflict escalate. We don't want to see it spread."

Blinken said he was saddened by the loss of life and said reaching a ceasefire deal on the war in Gaza can help to calm the situation on Israel's border with Lebanon, Reuters reported.

"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.