Israeli Occupation Blames Hezbollah After Iron Dome Interceptor Strikes Occupied Syrian Golan

Unable to defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon, the colonial Israeli regime is now trying to morally assassinate the Lebanese Islamic Resistance. On July 27, an explosion went off in playground in the village of Majdal Shams in occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Initial reports announced nine deaths and 20 wounded. This explosion happened concurrently with Hezbollah carrying out a triple operation against three separate Israeli Occupation Forces military bases.

While some pro-resistance news outlets initially celebrated the attack as retaliation for the ruthless zionist killing of civilians in Lebanon and Palestine, it quickly became clear that the casualties were Druze Arab civilians and not Israeli settlers. Majdal Shams is a Druze village known for having strong resistance against the zionist occupation of their lands. In 2021, the IOF assassinated pro-resistance former Syrian MP Midhat al-Saleh outside his home in Majdal Shams. In 2023, thousands of residents of Majdal Shams clashed with IOF forces in an effort to stop a wind farm land theft project. Lebanese political analyst Khalil Nasrallah described the people of Majdal Shams as “our people” and pointed out that the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon has no interest in striking them.

Soon after the explosion, the official Hezbollah Military media released a statement denying any involvement in the attack. The statement read: “The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon categorically denies the allegations reported by some enemy media outlets and various media platforms regarding the targeting of Majdal Shams, and confirms that the Islamic Resistance has no connection to the incident at all, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard.”

However, that did not stop imperialist media outlets from immediately blaming Hezbollah for the deaths. The Zionist entity, which is known for heavily obscuring the true number of casualties from resistance operations and lying about its military failures, declared it the “single deadliest Hezbollah attack on northern Israel since fighting there began in October.” IOF spokesperson Daniel Hagarty claimed that “Hezbollah is killing children” and that the IOF “will do everything to protect the citizens of the State of Israel.”

Zionist media quoted senior IOF officers announcing their intentions to escalate operations in Lebanon in response, claiming that “the events in the north will bring about a dramatic turning point in fighting in the area,” and that the zionist occupation War Minister Yoav Galant was preparing plans for such operations.

The US-backed Israeli military, responsible for killing tens of thousands of children in Gaza and heavily repressing the indigenous people of Majdal Shams, is now claiming that it is the protectors of Arab Druze children. Moreover, it is using the deaths of these children as “moral justification” to escalate a war against Lebanon that will certainly lead to the deaths of many more Arab children.

‘Israel’, US Shift Crosshairs on Lebanon as Hezbollah Overtakes ‘Israel’s’ Air ‘Superiority’

What really happened?
In an effort to combat the zionist propaganda, Syrian social media accounts posted footage showing that the zionist occupation’s iron dome interceptors had previously struck their village in March of this year and caused significant damage.

Sama TV journalist Mohamad Douba quoted Ghaleb Saif, the head of the Druze Initiative in occupied Golan, “The missiles that fall on Druze villages in the Golan and Galilee are Israeli interceptor missiles, and they always cause severe damage to places and lives. Every day, we see Iron Dome missiles miss their target and fall on us.”

Military expert Omar Marbouni provided his analysis:

Israeli websites are circulating information that the resistance bombed the town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan, and on this subject it is necessary to clarify the following :

First: The Resistance has no targets in Majdal Shams, and if there are any, there has not been any decision by the resistance to target civilian targets until the moment, so why would they now target our Syrian Arab people?

Secondly, the nearest Israeli military target is seven kilometers away from Majdal Shams, and there is no way for professional resistance rocket operatives to make a mistake by missing by this much distance.

Thirdly, it is very likely that the explosion was caused by an interceptor missile from the Israeli Iron Dome, or that the enemy itself deliberately bombed the place, and in the history of this enemy there are many similar practices to exploit the issue for escalation.

Fourth, regardless of what happened, the enemy will exploit what happened, which means that in the coming days we may see an escalation of the conflict.

Corroborating this analysis, a journalist from Al-Arabi in Majdal Shams reported, “One of the Israeli ambulance personnel heard from eyewitnesses in Majdal Shams that the missile that fell was an Iron Dome missile, and he does not dare to register to authenticate the testimony, and he will be imprisoned if he makes any statement.”

It is unlikely that official reports from Majdal Shams will confirm this information as the chief of staff of the occupation army was deployed to meet with local leaders of the village to make sure they comply with the official occupation narrative.

RT Arabic cited Lebanese journalist Salem Zahran who pointed out, “Hezbollah’s shooters are skilled, and since the beginning of the battles they have been careful not to target civilians. How is it the case that the civilians targeted are the people of Syrian Majdal Shams who are disobedient to ‘Judaization’!… Yes, what happened was either a Zionist mistake with Israeli missiles from the Iron Dome, or a deliberate act carried out simultaneously with Netanyahu’s presence in Washington.”

This would not be the first time that a US-backed proxy military used this lie to cover for failing air defenses. Earlier this month, Ukrainian air defense* struck a hospital in Kiev while attempting to intercept Russian cruise missiles. Video evidence and analysis proved that the missile that struck the hospital was indeed an interceptor, however that did not stop imperialist media from blaming Russia for “attacking hospitals.” This event was even cited at the recent NATO conference as a reason for the EU increasing its “aid” to Ukraine.

Divide and conquer
It is well known that the US-Israeli axis has relied heavily on the strategy of “moral assassination” against the Lebanese Islamic Resistance. Indeed, an entire campaign has been in effect to diminish support for Hezbollah in the Arab world after it entered the war in Syria alongside the Syrian government in combating Daesh and Al-Nusra.

Social media accounts sympathetic to the NATO-backed “Free-Syrian Army” are already spreading the narrative that Hezbollah is the enemy of Syrians. This zionist narrative will likely become more prevalent in the coming weeks.

The government of Syria held the occupation entity responsible for the massacre in the Golan village and discarded the zionist narrative against Hezbollah. “As part of its attempts to escalate the situation in the region, the Israeli occupation entity committed a heinous crime on Saturday in Majdal Shams town and then held Lebanese National Resistance accountable for this crime,” the Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said in a statement.

It also emphasized that the people of occupied Golan Heights, who for decades have refused to give up their Syrian Arab identity, will not be fooled by the occupation’s false accusations that the Lebanese resistance shelled Majdal Shams, especially since the people of Syrian Golan remain an integral part of the resistance against the zionist entity.

In an interview with Al Mayadeen, former chairman of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, stressed that everyone must be aware that the Israeli occupations will use this event to promote sectarianism and division and to beware of “any incitement in the context of the enemy’s destructive project.”

Special for Orinoco Tribune by Dalal Zainabi

OT/DZ/JRE/SC

*Update: Originally the article reported that the interceptor was a PATRIOT. Russian officials reported it to be Norwegian-US manufactured NASAMS.