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The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike on a school killed 30 people Saturday, while a rocket fired from Lebanon killed 12 youngsters in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.
Israel’s military said Hezbollah fired the rocket from Lebanon, hitting a football pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams and killing the youngsters, who were between 10 and 20 years old.
The initial toll reported was 11, but a 12th victim later died. Another 18 youths were wounded in the attack, said the emergency services.
“Israel will not let this murderous attack go unanswered and Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for it, a price it has not paid before,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office.
Israeli forces and Hezbollah have traded cross-border fire since early October, following the attack by the Lebanese group’s ally Hamas on southern Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.
Netanyahu later said he would hold a security cabinet meeting on his return to Israel from the United States.
The United Nations urged “maximum restraint,” in a joint statement from their special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) chief Aroldo Lazaro.
Intensifying exchanges of fire “could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief,” they said.
The US National Security Council condemned what it described as a “horrific attack.”
“Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” a spokesman said in a statement.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the “bloodbath” and called for an independent investigation.
Hezbollah had earlier claimed several attacks on Israeli military sites after an air raid on southern Lebanon killed four of its fighters.
