The Biden administration is reportedly increasingly alarmed that the rocket assault on Golan Heights by Iran-sponsored terrorists in Lebanon on Saturday — which killed at least 12, with dozens more wounded – could ‘further’ ignite a wide scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, American sources are worried that the chances of a war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have gone up dramatically because there is no cease-fire around. Such a standoff would deepen the regional crisis and possibly draw it more deeply into its seemingly intractable war, according to one news source.
“What happened today could be the trigger we have been worried about and tried to avoid for 10 months,” one American official told the outlet.
The strike resulted in a confirmed 12 dead and dozens of wounded, but it may also “ignite” all-out war between Israel and the Iran-proxy terrorist organization.
Hezbollah’s attack Saturday was deemed the “most serious targeting” of Jewish civilians, said Israel Defense Forces Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
In an English-language video published on Twitter, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah ‘‘crossed all red lines’ by issuing the lethal strike that killed mostly children and young adults aged 10-20.
The Jewish state was now “in a full-scale war with the Lebanese outlaws,” Katz said.
At the White House, there was no immediate comment on the attack, but officials have expressed concern for months that Israel and Hezbollah could be heading towards a full-blown conflict after tit-for-tat accusations over missile launches escalated a war of words with saber rattling.
On Saturday, Hezbollah upgraded the warhead on a rocket in response to the preceding Israeli Raid — when Israel killed four of their fighters earlier that day.
Last week, Hezbollah fired a fusillade of 20 rockets that wounded an American and Israeli civilian at the Zar’it military post near northern Israel.
The terror group published disturbing drone footage of Israel in mid-June, tagging military sites and cities as “highly populated,” which led to Hezbollah, the one that publicly released it, threatening an imminent war with Israel.