JERUSALEM, Israel – The Druze village of Majdal Shams buried its dead Sunday in the Golan Heights after the worst atrocity since the beginning of the nearly ten-month war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Israel plans a major response and is deciding what to do after 12 children were killed by a Hezbollah rocket as they were playing soccer.
Druze residents remain in shock from the attack. One of them, Hassan Shakir, stated, "Big anger. Big. Big. I have no feelings that I can explain to you because only now we are waiting for all the children that are in the hospital to return to us safely."
Another resident, Ibrahim Safadi, said, "I know one of the boys. He is a relative (of) mine and he is also a bit of my neighbor. Before, before the incident, two days before the incident, I was playing with him and speaking with him, and then two days later he's dead in the news."
Many Israelis are now bracing for greater conflict. Tel Aviv resident Eran Ben Meir declared, "We're going to war, it's going to warm up (escalate) and (there will be) war. We're going to war there."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved up his U.S. departure to head home and convene his War Cabinet.
The Israel Defense Forces released details of where Hezbollah fired the rocket, a Falaq-1, manufactured in iran.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised a heavy response. "Hezbollah, Iran's proxy in the region – Hezbollah will not be exonerated for this event, even with its absurd denials. They fired, they will bear the price,” Gallant asserted.
Sarit Zehavi, CEO of Alma Research Center in northern Israel, tells CBN News Iran will dictate Hezbollah's next move.
"Iran architected the whole campaign against Israel. from the south (Gaza) and from the north (Lebanon). It's part of what they call unification of fronts. They want to create a war of attrition that would last a few years to weaken the state of Israel. And that's why I've said we need to deal with the problem and not only talk about responses and incidents," Zehavi explained.
She warned it's not just Israel's war.
"This is not an Israel-Hamas war. This is not (an) Israel-Hezbollah war. This is the Iranian campaign against the Western representative in the Middle East, which is the State of Israel," Zehavi noted.
She added, "And they are coming after us but they will come after you because they don't believe in gay rights; they don't believe in human rights and women's rights; they don't share the values that we share as democracies. And the mullahs of Iran view their mission to spread Islamic revolution values all over the world.”
Many countries, including the U.S., France, and Canada, are warning citizens to reconsider travel to Lebanon or to evacuate.
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