Residents console each other as they gather at the site of an alleged attack from Lebanon, in the Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. | Photo credit: AFP
Israel said at least 10 people were killed and many others, including children, were injured in a rocket attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on July 27. The incident came hours after three members of the militant group Hezbollah were killed in an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.
It is the deadliest attack on Israeli targets since fighting between the two foes began in October 2023, raising fears of a wider conflict in the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he was returning home from the United States as soon as possible.
Hezbollah said it attacked a military base in the Golan Heights in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a Lebanese village.
Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, Mohammed Afeef, told The Associated Press that the group “flatly denies attacking Majdal Shams”. Chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that “Hezbollah is lying”. He said all 10 of those killed were aged 10 to 20 and that more than 20 others were wounded.
The Israeli military said in a statement on July 27 that according to the intelligence it had, “the rocket attack towards Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
“The Hezbollah terrorist organization is behind the rocket attack on a football field in Majdal Shams this evening, which caused numerous civilian casualties, including children,” the statement said.
Israel’s Magen David Adom paramedic service initially reported that 11 people were injured, nine of them seriously and all aged between 10 and 20. Israeli public broadcaster Kan aired footage of some people being carried on stretchers to ambulances from a football field in the city of Majdal Shams.
“These were kids on a soccer field,” local council head Benny Ben Movchar told Israel’s Channel 12. “A red line was crossed today,” he said, urging Israeli leaders to begin targeting top Hezbollah commanders.
The Israeli military said it had detected a projectile coming from Lebanon towards the area, adding that they were cooperating with the MDA to evacuate the wounded. Channel 12 broadcast footage of a large explosion in a valley in the city.
Hezbollah said in a statement that its militants fired Katyusha rockets at an Israeli army checkpoint in the Golan Heights in response to Israeli air strikes on villages in southern Lebanon. The group earlier said three of its members were killed on Saturday, but did not say where they were killed. The Israeli military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot in the border village of Kafr Qila, saying militants were inside at the time.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it in 1981.