(CNN) — At least 12 people, including children, were killed when multiple rockets hit a village in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights Saturday in an attack that has raised fears of a major escalation in the long-running conflict.
At least 12 people, including children, were killed when multiple rockets hit a village in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights Saturday in an attack that has raised fears of a major escalation in the long-running conflict.
Israel said it had identified “approximately 30 projectiles” crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory in a barrage it blamed on the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and described as the deadliest against it since October 7. Hezbollah has said it “firmly denies” firing the rockets.
The attack risks significantly escalating the situation at the countries’ border, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office vowing Hezbollah will “pay a heavy price.” Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire across the demarcation line for almost 10 months with increasing ferocity and even before Saturday’s attack regional leaders had been warning the conflict is reaching a boiling point.
In addition to the 12 deaths, at least 29 people were injured in the attack in Majdal Shams, a village 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 is home to about 50,000 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 barrage as “the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since October 7.”
“This is a very serious incident and we will act accordingly,” he said.
Hagari said the rocket that hit the soccer field was a “Falaq 1 Iranian rocket carrying a 50kg warhead.” “This is a model that is owned exclusively by Hezbollah, and tonight it caused the deaths of 12 young boys and girls,” he added.
Netanyahu announced he was cutting short by several hours his visit to the United States and returning to Israel because of the attack and said he would convene a security cabinet meeting immediately upon his return.
The prime minister said he was “shocked” by the attack. “I can say that the State of Israel will not be silent about this. We will not put this off the agenda,” he said.
In a separate statement earlier, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister “made it clear” that “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for (the attack) that it has not paid so far.”
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 Israel will hit back at the enemy “harshly.”
‘Dire sights’
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.
