Israeli foreign minister says approaching 'moment of an all-out war' against Hezbollah, Axios reports

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel was approaching an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon after a rocket attack on a football ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed ten people on Saturday, Axios reported.

"The Hezbollah attack today crossed all red lines, and the response will be accordingly. We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon," Katz told Axios. The Iran-backed Lebanese group has denied any role in the attack.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily fire since the war in Gaza started after Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct.7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel launched an offensive that has so far killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities, displaced over 80% of the territory’s people and triggered a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel intensified with Israeli airstrikes and rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah striking deeper and further away from the border.

Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.