Tel Aviv, Israel: Israeli authorities said Saturday that at least 11 children and teenagers were killed in a rocket attack at a soccer stadium, the deadliest attack on Israeli targets along Israel’s northern border since fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began, raising concerns about a wider regional war.
Israel has blamed Hezbollah for the airstrikes in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah has been quick to deny any role. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price for this attack”. “It is a price that has never been paid before.”
Israeli military spokesman Major General Daniel Hagari called it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the October 7 Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza. He said 20 people were wounded.
“There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all the red lines here, and the response will reflect that,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel's Channel 12. “We are getting closer to the point where we are facing all-out war.”
Hezbollah's chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, told The Associated Press that the group “categorically denies the attack on Mazdal Shams.” It is unusual for Hezbollah to deny an attack.
The airstrike at the football stadium just before sunset followed cross-border violence on Saturday, when Hezbollah said three fighters had been killed, but did not say where. The Israeli military added that the air force had struck a Hezbollah weapons depot in the border town of Kfar Killa, where militants were inside at the time.
Hezbollah said its fighters carried out 10 attacks on Israeli military bases using rockets and explosive drones, the last of which hit the Haramoun Brigade headquarters in Ma'ale Golani with Katyusha rockets. In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it attacked the same military base with short-range Falak rockets. The attack was a response to Israeli airstrikes on a southern Lebanese town.
Netanyahu's office, which was visiting the United States, said he would cut his trip short by several hours, without specifying when he would return. He said he would convene his security cabinet upon his arrival.
Far-right figures in Netanyahu's government have called for a tougher response to Hezbollah, but an all-out war against a militant group with far more firepower than Hamas would be a challenge for Israeli forces that have been fighting in Gaza for nearly 10 months.
Footage broadcast on Israel's Channel 12 showed a large explosion in one of the valleys of Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Golan Heights that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981. Some Druze have Israeli citizenship. Many still have sympathies for Syria and reject Israeli annexation, but their ties to Israeli society have grown over the years.
The footage showed paramedics removing a stretcher from the football field and carrying it toward a waiting ambulance.
Resident Haile Mahmoud told Channel 12 that his children were playing soccer when the rocket struck the field. He said he heard a siren seconds before the rocket struck, but there was no time to evacuate.
Jihan Spadi, the elementary school principal, told Channel 12 that five students were among the dead. “The situation here is very difficult. Parents are crying, people are screaming outside. No one understands what happened.”
The Israeli military said its analysis showed the rocket was fired from an area north of the southern Lebanese town of Chebba.
The White House National Security Council said in a statement that the United States “will continue to support efforts to end these horrific attacks along the Blue Line, which must remain our top priority. Our support for Israel's security remains ironclad and unwavering, including against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”
The Lebanese government, in a statement that did not mention Majdal Sham, called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned all attacks on civilians.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire since October 8, a day after Hamas militants invaded southern Israel. In recent weeks, the fighting along the Lebanese-Israeli border has intensified, with Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket and drone strikes hitting deeper and farther from the border.
The Israeli military said Majdal Shams was not among the border communities ordered to evacuate amid rising tensions, but did not say why. The town is not directly on the border with Lebanon.
Officials from countries including the United States and France have visited Lebanon to try to ease tensions, but have made no progress. Hezbollah has refused to stop firing as long as Israel's offensive in Gaza continues. Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive war in 2006.
Saturday's violence comes as Israel and Hamas consider a ceasefire proposal that would end nearly 10 months of war in Gaza and free about 110 hostages still held there. Hamas attacked on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. More than 39,000 people have died as a result of Israeli attacks, according to local health officials.
Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also about 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 44 people have been killed, at least 21 of them soldiers.
