Lebanon is on high alert after Israel vowed a “harsh response” to the rocket strike on Majdal Shams, a Druze town in Israeli-occupied Golan, which killed 12 teenagers and children. Hezbollah said it had fired rockets in the area but denied responsibility.
On July 27, Hezbollah claimed to have launched two attacks on the Maale Golani barracks 2km north of Majdal Shams, including one with an Iranian-bult Falaq-1 rocket. The IDF found Falaq-1 debris at Majdal Shams, and say that up to now only Hezbollah has used this type of rocket. Claims that it was an IDF Iron Dome interceptor have been denied, as the rocket appears to have evaded detection.
The Druze are an ethnoreligious group of around one million people spread across Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. Druze have a strong national loyalty to the land on which they live, and have served in the IDF since 1957. Of the 150,000 who live in Israel, around 20,000 are in the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967, where only 20% have taken Israeli citizenship with many still identifying as Syrian.
