Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday Russia’s leadership was “hyper rational” and that Ukraine would never be able to fulfil its hopes of becoming a member of the European Union or NATO.

Orban, a nationalist in power since 2010, made the comments during a speech in which he forecast a shift in global power away from the “irrational” West towards Asia and Russia.

“In the next long decades, maybe centuries, Asia will be the dominant centre of the world,” Orban said, mentioning China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia as the world’s future big powers.

“And we Westerners pushed the Russians into this bloc as well,” he said in the televised speech before ethnic Hungarians at a festival in the town of Baile Tusnad in neighbouring Romania.

Orban, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has sharply differed from the rest of the bloc by seeking warmer ties with Beijing and Moscow, and he angered some EU leaders when he went on surprise visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing this month for talks on the war in Ukraine.

He said that in contrast to the “weakness” of the West, Russia’s position in world affairs was rational and predictable, saying the country had shown economic flexibility in adapting to Western sanctions since it invaded Crimea in 2014.

Orban, whose own government has passed a number of anti-LGBT measures, said Russia had gained clout in many parts of the world by cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights.

“The strongest international appeal of Russian soft power is its opposition to LGBTQ,” he said.

He added that Ukraine would never become a member of the EU or NATO because “we Europeans do not have enough money for that”.

“The EU needs to give up its identity as a political project and become an economic and defence project,” Orban added.

The EU opened membership talks with Ukraine late last month, although a long and tough road lies ahead of the country before it can join the bloc.

A declaration at the end of the NATO summit this month said the alliance will support Ukraine on “its irreversible path” towards membership.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the United States’ and Germany’s decision to deploy US long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 is “reminiscent of the events of the Cold War” and could see Russia station similar missiles in response.

“If the United States of America implements such plans, we will consider ourselves free from the unilateral moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range strike weapons, including increasing the capabilities of the coastal forces of our Navy,” said Putin, speaking at Russia’s annual Navy Day in St. Petersburg.

Putin said that the US and Germany’s decision to begin “episodic deployments” of the long-range missile capabilities from its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany starting in 2026 would put Russian infrastructure within the reach of the to-be-deployed missiles.

“This situation is reminiscent of the events of the Cold War related to the deployment of Pershing medium-range missiles in Europe,” he said.

Pershing II missiles, designed to deliver nuclear warheads, were deployed by the US Army at American bases in West Germany from 1983 to the alarm of the then Soviet leadership.

They were withdrawn with the introduction of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1988.

Putin added that the development of Russian medium and shorter-range strike weapons was “in the final stages,” and Russia would take “reciprocal measures to deploy them.”

The US and Germany in July issued a joint statement on the deployment of weapons systems in Germany, saying that “when fully developed, these conventional long-range fire units will include SM-6, Tomahawk, and developmental hypersonic weapons, which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe.”

Russia has repeatedly threatened to end its self-declared moratorium on fielding both “short range” and “intermediate range” land-based ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and missile launchers that could be used to carry either nuclear or conventional payloads.

Announcing the moratorium after the US withdrew from the INF in 2019, Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said “Russia will refrain from deploying these systems when we acquire them unless the American equipment is deployed in certain regions.”

The treaty, which the US and Europe accused Moscow frequently violating, banned such missiles and was seen as a centerpiece of European security since the Cold War.

Russia soon followed the US in withdrawing from the treaty, sparking concerns of a new arms race.

Israel vowed Hezbollah will “pay the price” after blaming the Lebanese militant group for a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children, touching off fears once again that an all-out war would envelop the region.

Hezbollah says it “firmly denies” it was behind the strike, the deadliest to hit Israel since the October 7 attacks.

Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes against Hezbollah targets “deep inside Lebanese territory” and along the border overnight Sunday, according to a statement from the military on Sunday morning. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties from those strikes.

And on a visit to the town of Majdal Shams near the Syrian and Lebanese borders, where the rocket attack left children and teenagers dead on Saturday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pledged a heavy response.

“Hezbollah is responsible for this and they will pay the price,” Gallant said. In an earlier statement from his office, he added: “We will hit the enemy hard.”

The Saturday attacks on the region involved “approximately 30 projectiles” crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory, in a barrage Israel’s military quickly blamed on the Iran-backed militant group.

Among the sites hit in the attack was a soccer field where children and teenagers had been playing, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.

Some 20,000 Druze Arabs live in the Golan Heights, an area Israel seized from Syria in 1967 during the Six-Day War and annexed in 1981. Considered occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions, the area is also home to about 50,000 Israeli Jewish settlers. Most Druze there identify as Syrian and have rejected offers of Israeli citizenship.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading rocket fire on a near-daily basis since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, and those exchanges have become increasingly volatile, sparking fears on several occasions that Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza would spiral into a conflict on multiple fronts across the Middle East.

While Hezbollah admitted striking the Golan Heights on Saturday it rejected responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams.

“We confirm that the Islamic Resistance has no connection to the incident whatsoever and firmly denies all false claims in this regard,” a statement read.

Israel’s initial overnight response appeared to stop short of the kind of attack that would launch an all-out war, but it gave rise to an incredibly tense day in the region.

Iran on Sunday warned Israel against “any new adventures” aimed at Lebanon, in a statement issued by foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani. The statement said Israel “does not have the minimum moral authority to comment and judge about the incident that happened in Majdal Shams area, and the claims of this regime against others will not be heard either.”

Eleven-year-old Alma was daddy’s little girl. She used to get away with anything she wanted. Her father, Ayman Fakhr al-Din said she was always filled with energy and loved playing sports.

That was the last thing she did before her tragic death.

Alma was killed alongside 11 other children when a rocket hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday.

Israeli officials have blamed Hezbollah for the strike and vowed to retaliate. The Lebanese militant group has “firmly” denied responsibility.

In addition to the 12 deaths, at least 44 people were injured in the attack that has rocked the town’s Syrian Druze community.

“This time, something wasn’t right. It was something unbelievable,” Fakhr al-Din said.

He was running errands just outside the village when he heard the massive attack rock the area. He called his eldest son, 13-year-old Rayan, to check on him as he made his way back.

Rayan and his younger brother had been playing on the football pitch just minutes before the rocket fell. Fakhr al-Din was relieved to know they were alive.

“What about Alma?” he asked.

Their brothers assumed she had gone home, but Fakhr al-Din thought he’d go to the scene regardless.

“I reached the stadium, and in the corner, I saw dead bodies and body parts. When I got closer to one of them, I spotted a bracelet on a girl’s wrist. That’s when I knew it was Alma,” he said.

The horror Fakhr al-Din witnessed is shared by almost every person in the village. They’re filled with a sense of bewilderment and shock for what has happened to their tight-knit community.

Thousands of mourners turned up to pay their respects to the families of the victims on Sunday. A funeral procession was held in the middle of the village with people standing on balconies and rooftops overlooking the ceremony.

The mood was somber, and the grief was palpable.

On the loudspeakers, religious leaders and imams gave sermons and blessings for the deceased. The resounding calls were to “end this crazy war in Gaza,” which has triggered a violent tit-for-tit between Israel and Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border.

A resident of the village, Luna lost two of her cousins in the attack. She went to the stadium moments after the strike occurred and saw their bloodied remains.

She could barely formulate a sentence.

“I always see videos of massacres happening in Gaza. I never thought it would happen to us,” she said.

“It’s an incredible disaster. We haven’t slept yet, so we haven’t yet processed it,” he said.

He said no one ever expected this to happen, and no logic could possibly justify it.

“They were just kids. What did they do wrong?”

There’s a strong sense of community in Majdal Shams. Most residents, asked if they know a victim, will respond, “we are all one family.”

That sense of kinship was evident at the funeral, with people of all ages standing side by side consoling each other in their grief.

One by one, coffins draped in white sheets and adorned with flowers were carried through the crowds. With each one that appeared came deeper cries and wails, as if they were reliving their deaths over and over.

The fear now is for what comes next.

Parents are afraid to send their children outside. Nobody feels safe anymore.

The attack Saturday was a major escalation in what had already been an extremely volatile few months in the border area. Fears have been growing that the escalation could lead to a full-blown regional war between Israel and Hezbollah.

“Who killed my daughter is Hezbollah,” he said. “My enemy is Hezbollah, I say it openly.”

Despite his anger, he said he doesn’t want more children to die, and doesn’t want this to escalate.

All he wants is to forget how he last saw his daughter.

“She liked to play just like any other kid,” he said. Pointing to her pink colored bedroom he added, “in the end, we have a room without Alma.”

Israeli attacks killed at least 19 Palestinians, including children, and injured numerous others across Gaza on Sunday, according to health officials and Gaza’s Civil Defense.

Gaza’s Civil Defense said another airstrike hit tents in the Al-Mawasi area, which the Israeli military has designated a “humanitarian zone” for displaced Palestinians, killing at least four people. One of them was an infant girl that arrived at a nearby hospital, according to a statement by the Kuwait Specialized Field hospital.

“My son, my son, my brother, his wife, his sister, and my sister are all gone,” he says as he walks toward the hospital entrance. “They struck a tent, I swear they struck a tent, my mother is gone.”

Five other people were killed in attacks in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah, the Civil Defense spokesman said in a statement on Sunday.

Israel launched its war on Hamas in Gaza in retaliation to the militant group’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 250 others.

Since then, Israeli attacks have killed more than 39,000 people and injured over 90,000 others since October 7, according to figures by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have reached new heights in the wake of a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The strike on Saturday hit a soccer field in the Arab town of Majdal Shams, home to a large Druze community, and killed at least 12 children, according to Israel.

Israel blamed Hezbollah for the attack and vowed to retaliate. The Iran-backed group denied being behind the strike.

Here’s what to know about the Golan Heights, and the religious and ethnic Druze minority that fell victim to the attack.

What is the Golan Heights?

The Golan Heights is a strategic plateau that Israeli seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, before formally annexing it in 1981. The hilly landscape, which spans some 500 square miles, also shares a border with Jordan and Lebanon.

Syria’s capital Damascus is visible from atop the rocky Golan. The Israeli-occupied part of the region is separated from Syria by a buffer zone supported by the United Nations.

The Golan Heights is considered to be occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions, and Syria continues to demand it be returned.

The area has often been a flashpoint, most recently in 2019 when former President Donald Trump said the US will recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights – a move that overturned years of policy and worsened tensions with Syria.

Israel sees the Golan Heights as key to its national security interests and says it needs to control the region to fend off threats from Syria and Iranian proxy groups there.

Saturday’s strike is not the first in the Golan Heights since Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza began following the October 7 attacks.

In early July, a Hezbollah rocket attack killed two people in the region, prompting Israel’s head of the Golan Regional Council to call for retaliation “with force” against the Lebanese group. Hezbollah had said earlier that it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets on the Golan Heights “in response” to an alleged Israeli attack in Syria targeting a Hezbollah key member.

Who are the Druze?

The Druze are an Arab sect of roughly one million people who primarily live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.  Originating in Egypt in the 11th century, the group practices an offshoot of Islam which permits no converts – either to or from the religion – and no intermarriage.

More than 20,000 Druze live in the Golan Heights. Most of them identify as Syrian and rejected an offer of Israeli citizenship when Israel seized the region in 1967. Those who refused were given Israeli residency cards but are not considered Israeli citizens.

Druze of the Golan Heights share the territory with around 25,000 Jewish Israelis, spread across more than 30 settlements. Last year, the UN Human Rights Council sounded alarms over Israel’s plan to double the settler population on the Golan by 2027.

Syrian Druze in the Golan have suffered from discriminatory policies, especially those relating to land and water allocation, according to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

“Over the years, the expanding Israeli settlements and their activities had reduced the access of Syrian farmers to water, due to discriminatory policies related to prices and fees,” the UN committee said.

Druze in the Golan Heights have historically opposed Israeli laws they saw as attempts at “Israelization.” In 2018, thousands of Druze-led protesters opposed the Jewish Nation-State Basic Law put forth by the Israeli parliament, fearing it would deepen discrimination.

The law established Israel as the historic home of the Jewish people with a “united” Jerusalem as its capital and declared that the Jewish people “have an exclusive right to national self-determination” in Israel.

Druze leaders at the time said the controversial law made them feel like second-class citizens because it didn’t mention equality or minority rights.

Recent data reported in Israeli media shows an increase in the numbers of Druze from the Golan seeking Israeli citizenship, but the numbers doing so remain extremely small: 75 in 2017 to 239 in 2021

Outside the Golan, some 130,000 Israeli Druze live in the Carmel and Galilee in Israel’s north.

In contrast to other minority communities within Israel’s borders, many are fiercely patriotic. Druze men over 18 have been conscripted to the IDF since 1957 and often rise to positions of high rank, while many build careers in the police and security forces.

Back in May, Amos Hochstein, US President Joe Biden’s point-man for keeping a lid on tensions between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, spoke in a webinar.

“What I worry about every single day,” he said, “is that a miscalculation or an accident… hits a bus full of children, or hits another kind of civilian target, that could force the political system in either country to retaliate in a way that slides us into war. Even though both sides probably understand that a fuller or deeper-scale war is in neither side’s interest.”

The equivalent of that bus came on Saturday evening in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

A rocket, which Israel says was launched by Hezbollah from Chebaa in southern Lebanon, slammed into a soccer pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams. Twelve children, ranging in age from 10 to 16, were killed while taking part in a training session. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the strike. Will Hochstein’s fear of a fuller-scale war now also come to pass?

If Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, is to be believed, it probably will. “We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah,” he said in an Israeli television interview on Saturday evening. “The response to this event will be accordingly.”

The United States has apparently blessed retaliatory action, to some degree. “We stand by Israel’s right to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, before adding that the US did not want to “see the conflict escalate.”

For months now, the international community has been trying to de-escalate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. With Iran’s strongest proxy estimated to have at least 150,000 missiles and rockets pointing south, the fear is of a war that would devastate Lebanon, and do serious damage to Israel.

And yet, over the past near-10 months of fighting, Israel, Hezbollah and Iran have always pulled back from what appeared to be the brink. In January, Israel took out a senior Hamas leader in Beirut. All-out war failed to materialise. In April, Israel killed a top commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRCHG) in Damascus. In response, Iran launched unprecedented strikes on Israel. All-out war failed to materialise.

The status quo, of course, can’t continue either. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been displaced from their homes. Large swathes of northern Israel are like ghost towns. A similar picture plays out in southern Lebanon. The best way to avoid all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, says Blinken, is to get a ceasefire in Gaza. Talks aimed at achieving that resume on Sunday.

But that would only be a short-term fix. Israel wants to remove the Hezbollah threat entirely, moving it back to the Litani River, in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution that ended the last major war between the two in 2006. “If the world doesn’t get Hezbollah away from the border, Israel will do it,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in December.

And so despite the bombast, domestic pressures, the fears and the escalations, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues to simmer rather than boil over. No one seems to want this war. But as Hochstein warned in that same webinar: “Wars have started historically around the world even when leaders didn’t want them, because they had no choice.”