Children and teenagers among 11 dead in Golan Heights rocket attack that Israel blames on Hezbollah

CNN
 — 

At least 11 people, including children, were killed when multiple rockets hit a village in the Golan Heights Saturday – in what Israel described as the deadliest attack against it since October 7.

Israel said it had identified “approximately 30 projectiles” crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory and blamed the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for the barrage. Hezbollah rejected the accusation, saying it “firmly denied” firing the rockets.

At least 29 people were injured in the attack in Majdal Shams, a village in the Israeli-controlled northern Golan Heights that is home to a large Druze community.

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 has a population of about 50,000, split evenly between Israeli Jewish settlers and Druze. Most Druze there identify as Syrian and have rejected offers of Israeli citizenship.

Among the sites hit in the attack was a soccer field where children and teenagers had been playing, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. He described the attack as “the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since October 7.”

“This is a very serious incident and we will act accordingly,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was cutting short his visit to the United States and returning to Israel because of the attack, the Israeli Government Press Office announced, adding he would convene a security cabinet meeting immediately upon his return. Netanyahu was originally meant to fly back later on Saturday.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog decried the attack as a “terrible and shocking disaster” and vowed Israel would “defend” its citizens.

“Hezbollah terrorists brutally attacked and murdered children today, whose only crime was going out to play soccer. They did not return,” he said in a post on X.

“The world cannot continue to sit in silence in the face of (Hezbollah leader Hassan) Nasrallah’s terror attacks, which come at the behest of the empire of evil in Iran. The State of Israel will firmly defend its citizens and its sovereignty.”

The attack on Saturday is a major escalation in what has been an extremely volatile period in the border area. Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire across the border for almost 10 months and regional leaders have been warning the conflict is reaching a boiling point.

Officially, Lebanon and Israel are – and have been for decades – in a state of war, but the recent tensions have so far not escalated into a full-blown conflict.

The situation escalated further in the past few weeks when Israel killed two high-ranking Hezbollah commanders – Sami Taleb Abdullah in May and Muhammed Neamah Naser in June – blaming them for directing terror attacks both before and after Hamas’ October 7 attacks from Gaza. Hezbollah retaliated by firing hundreds of missiles into Israel.

The strikes have become more frequent in recent weeks and both Hezbollah and Israel are targeting sites deeper and deeper into each other’s territory.

It is unclear how Israel will respond. The Government Press Office said Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant was conducting a situation assessment together with the IDF Chief of the General Staff and senior defense officials.

Speaking later on Saturday, Gallant said “we will hit back at the enemy harshly.”

Meanwhile, Netanyahu held a security consultation with his military secretary General Roman Gofman, and will hold a security situation assessment with all the heads of the defense establishment later on Saturday, his office said.

Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz traveled to Majdal Shams on Saturday, calling on Netanyahu to increase IDF presence in the area.

Some IDF units previously stationed along the country’s northern border have been redeployed to southern Israel following the October 7 terror attack by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

“We have a moral obligation in the south to return the hostages home, and we have a strategic obligation to return security to the north and the people to their homes. This has gone on for too long. I told the prime minister that he must turn the resources to the north at the same time as the work in the south for the return of the hostages – this is the main task.”

The Lebanese government said after the attack that it condemned “all acts of violence and attacks against all civilians,” after the rocket attack, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.

The government also called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and said that “targeting civilians constitutes a blatant violation of international law and is contrary to the principles of humanity,” NNA reported.

Adeeb Safadi, a resident of Majdal Shams, told CNN that those killed in the rocket attack on the soccer field were all Druze children from local villages, boys between the ages of eight and 15.

“They were attending a football training class with a coach whose fate is still unknown. Ten of the killed have been identified, but there are more who were torn apart and are still unidentified,” said Safadi, who lives some 600 meters from the site of the attack.

He said he saw black smoke and heard an explosion. About four seconds after the explosion, he heard sirens warning people about an imminent attack.

Evacuation helicopters, ambulances and intensive care vehicles have been dispatched to the scene.

Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service reported that the fatalities included “teenagers and young adults” whose ages ranged from 10 to 20 years old. It said a further 29 people were injured, six of whom were in a serious condition.

Idan Avshalom, a senior medic from MDA, said the team saw destruction and fire when arriving at the scene.

“Injured people were lying on the grass and the sights were dire. We immediately began triaging the injured, some of the injured were sent to local clinics and our teams were also directed to the clinics,” he said, adding that there were additional alerts as they worked to save the injured.

Ziv Medical Center in the northern Israeli city of Safed said it had received 26 injured people, five of whom were admitted to the trauma center. Rambam Hospital in Haifa has also opened an information center to help people get information about their loved ones.

Israeli police said that munitions have fallen in “multiple sites in the northern Golan.”

Police are “securing the area and searching for additional remnants to eliminate any further risk to the public,” the Police Spokesperson’s Unit said.

While the IDF has blamed the attack on Hezbollah, the militant group denied involvement in a statement on Telegram Saturday.

“The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon firmly denies the allegations made by some enemy media outlets and various media platforms regarding the targeting of Majdal Shams,” it said.

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

Earlier on Saturday, Hezbollah had said it targeted an Israeli military site in a different part of the occupied Golan Heights.

The IDF said its analysis showed the rocket launched at Majdal Shams was “carried out from an area located north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon.”

Hagari, the IDF spokesperson, said Hezbollah was lying when denying it was behind the attack. “Our intelligence is clear – Hezbollah is responsible for killing innocent children. Ten-year-old children and once again, the brutality of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization was exposed,” he said.

The White House on Saturday condemned the attack and reiterated its “iron-clad” support fro Israel.

“Israel continues to face severe threats to its security, as the world saw today, and the United States will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority,” a National Security Council Spokesperson said in a written statement to CNN, referring to the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon.

“Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an independent international investigation into the attacks and urged restraint.

“Shocking images from the soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams. I strongly condemn this bloodbath. We urge all parties to exercise utmost restraint and avoid further escalation,” he said in a statement posted on X.