Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the rocket strike in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights which killed 12 children and teenagers.
Lebanon’s foreign minister has condemned a rocket attack on a football field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights – but said it does not give Israel a “licence to kill”.
Israel and the US have blamed Hezbollah, but the Iranian-backed group has denied it was responsible for the strike which killed 12 children and teenagers and left 20 others wounded.
The Israeli military said the rocket fired from Lebanon that slammed into a football field in the town of Majdal Shams – about seven miles south of Lebanon and next to the Syrian border – on Saturday was the deadliest attack on civilians since the Hamas’ attack on 7 October.
Speaking to Sky News’ Alex Crawford, Lebanon’s foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib called for a UN investigation but said there was “no logic” for Hezbollah to have been behind it.
“So we condemn this incident that happened, because it was against civilians and against young men who were playing football or something like that.
“Second thing, we condemn whoever did it – be it somebody Lebanese or Israeli.”
He said the area is Syrian territory occupied by Israel and its inhabitants are Syrian, so retaliation “is not self defence”.
“And therefore it doesn’t mean give them a licence to kill and destroy like they took in Gaza,” he said. “The world should not give them a licence to kill.”
The attack hit the village of Majdal Shams, part of the Druze community, a faith which makes up more than half the 40,000-strong population of the Golan Heights.
The territory was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
Attacks along the Israel-Lebanon border have simmered below the threshold of all-out war since the start of the Israel-Gaza war 10 months ago.
