Eleven people, between the ages of 10 and 20, have been killed after a rocket attack on a football field in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli media reports.
The rocket is believed to have hit a football field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, where 11 people were initially reported as wounded.
The Israeli Defence Force have blamed Hezbollah for the strike, but the Lebanese militant group have since denied accusation.
Israel’s military called it a ‘very serious’ event and said it would act accordingly, with their military chief spokesperson calling it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the Hamas attack on October 7.
‘Hezbollah fired a rocket at children playing soccer in northern Israel. It then lied and claimed they did not carry out the attack,’ said the military’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
The aerial attack came hours an Israeli strike in Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon that killed four with several being members of Hezbollah, Reuters reported and a statement from the group.
At least 11 people, between the ages of 10 and 20, have been killed after a rocket attack on a football field in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli media reports
The rocket is believed to have hit a football field in Majdal Shams area, where 11 people were initially reported as wounded
Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire since October, after Hamas‘ attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war, in their worst escalation since 2006.
Footage aired on Israeli Channel 12 showed a large blast in one of the valleys in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed in 1981.
Video showed paramedics rushing stretchers off of young people wearing sports shirts from the football pitch toward waiting ambulances.
‘These were kids at a soccer field,’ Beni Ben Muvchar, head of the local council, told Israeli Channel 12. ‘Today a red line was crossed.’
‘We witnessed great destruction when we arrived at the soccer field, as well as items that were on fire,’ said Magen David Adom medic Idan Avshalom.
‘There were casualties on the grass and the scene was gruesome.’
Another witness told Reuters: ‘It landed in the soccer pitch, all of them are children. Many bodies and remains are in field we don’t know who they are.’
Ha’il Mahmoud, a resident of Majdal Shams, told Channel 12 that children were playing soccer when the rocket hit the field.
He said a siren was heard seconds before the rocket hit, but there was no time to take shelter.
The Israeli military said in a statement today that according to intelligence in its possession, ‘the rocket launch toward Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation’.
Hezbollah claimed at least four attacks, including with Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Kfarkila attacks.
However senior Hezbollah media representative Mohammad Afif denied responsibility for the strike on Majdal Shams.
In a written statement, the group said: ‘The Islamic Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard.’
Soldiers gather as people cover an injured person with a blanket at the site where a projectile hit the football pitch in Druze, Majdal Shams
The aftermath following the strike on the football pitch where 11 teenagers and children were killed
Pictued two charred bikes after the aerial attack. Hezbollah have denied any involvenment
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cut short his US visit – where he met president Joe Biden, vice-president Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump – in light of the incident, according to his office.
‘Immediately upon learning of the disaster, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed that his return to Israel be brought forward as quickly as possible,’ they said.
He has since warned the militant group ‘will pay a heavy price, the kind it has thus far not paid,” according to his office.
Lebanon’s government in a statement, without mentioning Majdal Shams, urged ‘immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts’ and condemned all attacks on civilians.
Saturday’s violence comes as Israel and Hamas are weighing a ceasefire proposal that would wind down the nearly 10-month war and free around 110 hostages who remain captive in Gaza.
Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.
Israel launched an offensive that has killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities.
Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 44 have been killed, at least 21 of them soldiers.
