Hezbollah rocket kills 12 at soccer stadium, Israel vows response

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM:

A rocket attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 people, including children, on Saturday, Israeli authorities said, blaming Hezbollah and vowing to exact a heavy toll on the Iranian-backed Lebanese group.

Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the strike, the deadliest in Israel or the Israeli-annexed territories since the Gaza conflict began.

The attack sharply escalated tensions in the hostilities that have been fought alongside the Gaza war and has raised fears of a full-scale conflict between the heavily armed rivals.

The missile hit a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, territory seized from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognized by most countries.

“Hezbollah will pay a heavy price, as it has not paid so far,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone call with the leader of Israel’s Druze community, according to a statement from his office.

In a written statement, Hezbollah said: “The Islamic Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the incident and categorically denies all false allegations about it.”

Hezbollah had earlier announced several rocket attacks targeting Israeli positions.

The Israeli Ambulance Service said 13 other people were injured by the rocket that hit the soccer field, which at the time was full of children and teenagers.

“They were playing football, they heard the sirens they ran to shelter… it might take about 15 seconds (to reach the shelter),” said Mourhaf Abu Saleh, a witness.

Footage posted on social media shows the moment the missile hit. An air raid siren sounds, followed by a large explosion and images of smoke rising. Reuters was able to independently verify the location with buildings and street layouts that matched satellite images of the area.

Idan Avshalom, a doctor with the Magen David Adom Ambulance Service, said first responders arrived at a scene of great destruction. “There were casualties on the grass and the scene was horrific,” he said.

Netanyahu, who was already scheduled to return from the United States to Israel on Saturday night, said he would reschedule his flight and convene his security office upon his arrival.

The United States, which is leading diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict on the Lebanon-Israel border, condemned it as a horrific attack and said US support for Israel’s security was “iron and unwavering against all terrorist groups supported by Iran. , including the Lebanese Hezbollah.”

The United States “will continue to support efforts to end these horrific attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority,” the White House National Security Council spokesman said in a statement. The Blue Line refers to the border between Lebanon and Israel.

Iranian missile

The Israeli military said the rockets were fired from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon.

Speaking to reporters in Majdal Shams, Israeli military spokesman Vice Admiral Daniel Hagari said forensics showed the missile was an Iranian-made Falaq-1.

Hezbollah had earlier announced that it had fired a Falaq-1 missile on Saturday, saying it was aimed at an Israeli military headquarters.

In a televised statement, Hagari also said there was currently no change in Home Front Command directives, indicating the military did not expect an imminent escalation across Israel.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, called for harsh retaliation, including against Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

“For the death of the children, Nasrallah should pay with his head. All of Lebanon should pay,” Smotrich wrote in X.

The conflict has forced tens of thousands of people in both Lebanon and Israel to flee their homes. Israeli strikes have killed around 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including doctors, children and journalists.

The Israeli military said after Saturday’s attack that the death toll among civilians killed in Hezbollah attacks rose to 23 since October, along with at least 17 soldiers.

Andrea Tenendy, a spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force operating in southern Lebanon, told Reuters the force’s commander was in contact with authorities in both Lebanon and Israel “to understand the details of the Majdal Shams incident and to maintain calm”.

A senior diplomat focused on Lebanon said all efforts are now needed to avoid an all-out war.

Attacks from Lebanon

Hezbollah is the most powerful of a network of Iranian-backed groups across the Middle East that have joined the fray in support of their Palestinian ally Hamas since October.

Iraqi groups and Yemen’s Houthis have both fired at Israel. Hamas has also launched rocket attacks into Israel from Lebanon, as has the Lebanese Sunni group Jama’a Islamiyya.

More than 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied Golan, more than half of them Druze. The Druze are an Arab minority who practice a branch of Islam.

The soccer stadium attack followed an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed four militants on Saturday. Two security sources in Lebanon said the four militants killed in the Israeli attack on Kfarqila in southern Lebanon were members of different armed groups, with at least one of them belonging to Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted a military structure belonging to Hezbollah after spotting a core of militants entering the building.

At least 30 rockets were then fired from Lebanon across the border, the military said.

Hezbollah claimed at least four attacks, including Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Kfarkila attacks.