Kim Ghattas
Saturday’s rocket strike on a football field in the Golan Heights was precisely the type of large-casualty event that many observers have feared could ignite an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah. After nine months of contained clashes, mostly along the Lebanon-Israel border, a rocket landed at dusk on Saturday in the Druze village of Majdel Shams and killed 12 young people. Israel and the United States say that Hezbollah was behind the strike, citing pictures of the rocket’s remains and the direction from which it was fired, but the Lebanese militant and political group has denied responsibility.
Hezbollah is usually quick to claim credit for its attacks. Over the past few months, the group has repeatedly aimed volleys of Katyusha rockets at Israeli-army positions in the Golan and announced that it has done so. Also on Saturday evening, Hezbollah took credit for rockets that hit the headquarters of an elite Israeli mountain brigade in the Golan.
But this strike is different. Both sides had been avoiding attacks that could cause large loss of life and a regional conflagration. What’s more, Hezbollah had been trying to repair frayed ties with the Druze community not only in Lebanon but in Syria, where for years the Lebanese group has been involved on President Bashar al-Assad’s side of a bloody civil war.
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