The reported airstrikes came after Israel accused Hezbollah killing 12 civilians in the Golan Heights
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reportedly conducted airstrikes against multiple targets in southern Lebanon, according to several news outlets reporting early Sunday morning.
Israeli officials previously vowed to retaliate after 12 individuals were killed when a rocket struck a football field in the occupied Golan Heights.
According to Al Jazeera, explosions were heard in the coastal city of Tyre and various villages along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Tensions escalated on Saturday when a rocket impacted the Druze village of Majdal Shams. The Israeli government blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which resulted in the deaths of primarily children. However, the Lebanon-based pro-Palestinian armed group denied the accusations.
Israeli politicians made strong statements throughout the day, condemning Hezbollah, whose forces have been firing rockets and mortar shells at Israeli military and civilian targets in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
“There is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz stated, warning that the country was on the verge of “an all-out war” with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the commander of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Aroldo Lazaro, issued a joint statement on Sunday, urging “the parties to exercise maximum restraint and to put a stop to the ongoing intensified exchanges of fire.”
They expressed concern that the escalation “could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief,”