Syria attributes deadly Golan strike to Israel, denounces attempts to expand war

 

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on 28 July that Israel is trying to ignite the region by blaming Hezbollah for the strike in the Syrian Druze town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights a day earlier. 

“As part of attempts to escalate the situation in the region, Israeli occupation entity committed a heinous crime on Saturday in Majdal Shams town and then held the Lebanese National Resistance accountable for this crime,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. 

“Syria condemns the continued massacres committed by Israeli occupation entity on a daily basis and holds it responsible for the dangerous escalation of the situation in the whole region,” it added. 

“People in occupied Golan, who have refused for decades to give up their Syrian Arab identity, will not be fooled by the occupation's false accusations that Lebanese national resistance shelled Majdal Shams, especially since people in Syrian Golan were and still are an integral part of resisting the occupier and its aggressive policies that violate land and identity.” 

Twelve Syrian children were killed when a missile fell on a soccer field in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday night. Israel immediately blamed Hezbollah and rejected the Lebanese resistance group’s statement on 27 July, categorically denying its involvement in the incident. 

Extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, along with members of the Likud, were expelled by the local residents of Majdal Shams while trying to attend the funeral on 28 July.

Eyewitnesses at the scene reported that it was an Israeli Iron Dome interceptor missile that fell on the field, according to an Al-Arabi TV correspondent who spoke with a member of Israel’s ambulance service, Magen David Adom. 

A military expert cited by Sputnik said, “the missile that exploded in Majdal Shams was 100 percent Israeli, and we are faced with two possibilities: either a malfunction in the performance of the Israeli air defense systems, or a deliberate launch to achieve specific goals.”

Tel Aviv has described the victims as Israeli civilians. Yet the residents of Majdal Shams are Syrian Druze living under occupation since the illegal occupation of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war.

Residents of the town have refused Israeli citizenship and continue to view themselves as Syrians. The Druze community in Majdal Shams called on Israel not to politicize the incident. However, Israeli officials have used it to reinforce calls for launching a broader war against Lebanon. 

Israeli jets launched several strikes against Lebanon’s southern and eastern regions afterward, yet Israeli officials have vowed further escalation. 

“Hezbollah will not escape punishment for this incident” and will “pay a heavy price,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday. 

The Majdal Shams incident has raised concerns that an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel is imminent. 

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