By Allison McManus
On Saturday, July 27, a rocket struck a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing 12 children. The Israeli government attributed the attack to Hezbollah and, despite U.S. warnings to avoid the Lebanese capital—carried out a strike on Tuesday in the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Early in the morning on July 31, Israel carried out a strike on Iranian soil, killing the political head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh. These developments underscore the precarious situation on Israel’s border with Lebanon and the risk of Iran and Israel entering into a wider war in the Middle East. Even carefully calibrated escalations risk spiraling out of control. U.S. officials must take urgent action to avoid wider conflict, including continued efforts toward an immediate ceasefire in the short term and steps to bolster Lebanon’s state institutions as an alternative to Hezbollah in the long term.
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