‘We’re a Hezbollah firing range’ – Anger in north after deadly attack

Local leaders urge IDF to “take the fight” to Lebanon, to protect the lives of Israeli citizens.

By World Israel News Staff

Local leaders and residents of Israel’s embattled northern border region are speaking out after a Hezbollah rocket attack killed two civilians on Tuesday evening.

“It’s unimaginable. We need to ask the government and IDF: How do they allow the Golan to become Hezbollah’s firing range whenever the army assassinates [a prominent Hezbollah operative] or strikes deep in Lebanon?” said Uri Kellner, head of the Golan Regional Council, in an interview on the Morning News with Niv Raskin.

“Hezbollah wants us to evacuate and abandon our homes, but we will not grant them this victory. We are strong and will remain in our communities,” Kellner added.

But, he stressed, “our expectation is that the state will do its part and move the fighting across the border and protect Israeli citizens.”

While they have not been identified by name, the victims of Tuesday’s attack were a husband and wife from Kibbutz Ortal in the Golan Heights – a community which has not been evacuated by the Israeli government, because it is not within 5 kilometers of the border.

The pair leave behind three children, who are now orphans.

The killing of the couple comes after daily missile, rocket, and explosive drone attacks by Hezbollah on communities in the Galilee region and Golan Heights.

“We are living in times of unprecedented disgrace when it comes to security, levels of lawlessness that we’ve never previously known,” Lior Simcha, Secretary General of the Kibbutz Movement, told Walla News.

“Israel has never seemed so weak and at a loss in the face of its enemies. Two Israelis were murdered on the road in the Golan Heights by Hezbollah fire and we are powerless, leaderless, lacking a plan and public legitimacy,” he added.

“It is time to show leadership and initiative, Whether military or political, put an end to this unbearable situation, it cannot continue like this.”