An attack on the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights on Saturday killed at least 11 people, most of them children and teenagers, who were on a football field, according to Israeli medical sources. In addition to these victims, who were between 10 and 20 years old, according to the Israeli emergency service, Magen David AmonAt least another thirty people were injured, several of them seriously. Israel has accused the Lebanese militia-party Hezbollah of this attack – the worst recorded in the area near the border with Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war in October – and has denied being behind it. The Shiite militia, supported and sustained by Iran, had announced hours earlier that it had launched missiles at an Israeli military base near Majdal Shams. Once the deaths of civilians, including several children, on the football field became known, it has disclaimed responsibility for the attack.
“According to the assessment of the situation by the (Israeli) army and the intelligence available to us, the rocket fire towards Majdal Shams was carried out by the terrorist organisation Hezbollah,” said an Israeli military statement. “Our information is clear. Hezbollah is responsible for the deaths of innocent children and teenagers,” said Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari, who accused the Shiite party-militia of lying by denying its involvement in the incident. Israel is already preparing its response to the attack, Hagari said.
“Hezbollah will pay a very heavy price, the likes of which it has not paid so far,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later added in a phone call with the leader of the Druze community in Israel, according to a statement from his office.
At the scene of the incident, according to images posted on social media, several bodies can be seen on the grass and next to one of the goals amid scenes of panic and pain as the first ambulances arrived. Amid the uncertainty, some soldiers took up positions in the sports area. Shortly before the magnitude of the attack was known, the Israeli army had announced the launching from Lebanese territory of some 40 projectiles in three different volleys while alarms were activated in the northern part of the country. One of them was the one that hit Majdal Shams, a town of Druze population in the internationally recognized territory of Syria, located in the Golan Heights, northeast of Israel, which remains under occupation and de facto administration of that country since 1967.
“Today’s Hezbollah attack crossed all red lines, and the response will be appropriate. We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Aixos, Reuters reports.
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Until this attack, the number of deaths on the Israeli side during this nearly ten-month war had been around ten civilians and around twenty soldiers. Of the approximately 500 deaths that have occurred during the war on Lebanese territory, around 400 belong to Hezbollah, of which around 60 are commanders. The other 100 are civilians, including three journalists.
The launching of rockets, drones, mortars and other devices has become routine between Hezbollah and Israeli army positions along the dividing line between the two countries since Hamas killed some 1,200 people on October 7 and the war broke out. The militia has managed several times, most recently this week, to fly drones over Israeli military positions and even the port of Haifa, where they have recorded videos of potential targets that they have made public to show their strength to the enemy.
A “colossal failure”
Saturday’s attack took place while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still on an official trip to the United States, from which he is due to return this Sunday, although after learning of the attack he announced that he will return as early as possible. In the meantime, he has held a first meeting with his military secretary, General Roman Gofman, the Prime Minister’s office reported.
For the opposition leader and until a few weeks ago a member of the dissolved War Cabinet, Benny Gantz, what is happening on the northern border represents “a colossal failure of the government resulting from a strategic failure of the prime minister,” he lamented during the week on his profile on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “Months ago I told Netanyahu that the greatest operational challenge is in the north, and I demanded that resources be transferred there and end with an agreement or an escalation,” added Gantz while, in the form of a dart at the prime minister, he affirms that the north is one of the challenges that the next government has ahead of it.
“Hezbollah, armed and financed by Iran, does not distinguish between a child or an adult, a soldier or a civilian, a Jew or a Muslim, a Druze or a Christian,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog in a statement.
The Lebanese Shiite militia, founded in 1982, has between 50,000 and 60,000 troops and an arsenal of around 150,000 rockets and missiles, some with a range of several hundred kilometres. It is a true army, much more powerful and prepared than Hamas, which operates in Gaza, where almost 40,000 people have already died in Israeli attacks since October and which is the main theatre of the conflict.
In the first week, Israeli authorities ordered the evacuation of some 60,000 people from some thirty towns near the Lebanese border who have not yet been able to return to their homes due to the constant exchange of attacks from both sides. Education Minister Yoav Kisch announced this week that it will not be possible for them to return before the start of school on September 1. For the moment, they are living in hotels or rented accommodation at state expense or are being taken in by relatives far from the border area.
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