US blames Hezbollah for attack on Golan Heights

(Patria) - The United States yesterday blamed the Lebanese movement Hezbollah for a rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, in which 12 children and teenagers were killed on a football field, increasing the danger of a wider war in the Middle East.

Israel also blamed Hezbollah after the attack on Saturday, saying it would strike hard at the Iran-backed movement, while Hezbollah denied responsibility, RSE reported.

The attack has raised fears of a wider conflict in a region where tensions have escalated due to the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military announced that the youths were hit on Saturday by an Iranian-made rocket carrying a 50-kilogram warhead, which Hezbollah fired at a football field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams.

"This attack was carried out by Lebanese Hezbollah. It was their rocket and it was launched from an area they control," the White House said yesterday.

The White House added that Washington has been in talks with Israeli and Lebanese officials since Saturday's attack, which it described as "terrible".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday that he did not want to see an escalation of the conflict on Israel's northern border and reiterated US support for Israel.

"I emphasize (Israel's) right to defend its citizens and our determination to ensure they can do so. But we also do not want to see an escalation of the conflict. We do not want it to spread," Blinken said during a press conference in Tokyo.

The White House announced that Washington is working on a diplomatic solution to end the attacks along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Blinken said he was saddened by the loss of life and added that reaching a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza war could also help calm the situation on Israel's border with Lebanon.

"It is so important that we help calm that conflict, not only to prevent its escalation and spread, but to calm it down because you have so many people in both countries, both in Israel and Lebanon, who have been displaced from their homes," Blinken added.

The US, Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to mediate the dispute. But Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, have yet to reach a lasting ceasefire.