Israeli Security Cabinet leaves response to Majdal Shams attack to Netanyahu and Gallant

Jul 28. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Israeli government’s Security Cabinet has approved leaving the response to Saturday’s attack in which 12 civilians, most of them children, were killed in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, an action that Israel attributes to the Lebanese militia-party Hezbollah.

The Security Cabinet meeting began at 4 p.m. and lasted four hours, following an agreement to leave Netanyahu and Gallant to decide on the scope and timing of Israel’s retaliation against Lebanon, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

Several ministers had criticised the speed with which last week’s retaliatory attack against Yemen’s Houthis was decided and ordered, so at Sunday’s meeting all ministers had ample opportunity to speak, according to the daily ‘Yedioth Aharonoth’.

However, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir abstained from the final vote.

The meeting also addressed the status of negotiations for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, although this will be the subject of a future meeting, according to sources from Yedioth Aharonoth.

Twelve Israeli Druze civilians, most of them minors, were killed on Sunday in Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, by what Israel said was an Iranian rocket fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon. Hezbollah, however, denies any involvement and blames an Israeli anti-aircraft interceptor missile.