TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — At least 12 children and teenagers were killed in a rocket attack on a soccer field on Saturday, Israeli officials said, in the deadliest attack on Israeli targets along the country’s northern border since fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began. Fears of a wider regional war have risen.
Israel has blamed Hezbollah for attacks in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Hezbollah The Israeli government denied any involvement, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah “will pay a price for this attack that is bigger than it has ever paid before.”
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said this was the first attack on Israeli civilians. Hamas attack on October 7 It sparked a war in Gaza. Twenty more people were wounded, he said.
“There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed a red line here and their response will reflect that,” Israeli Foreign Minister Katz told Israel’s Channel 12. “We are approaching a moment where we face an all-out war.”
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif told The Associated Press that the group “categorically denies the attack” on the city of Majdal Shams, an unusual denial by Hezbollah.
office NetanyahuTrump, who is visiting the United States, said he would cut his trip short by a few hours, without giving a timetable for when he would return home. He said he would convene a meeting of his national security cabinet once he arrives.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government have called for a tough response against Hezbollah, but after nearly 10 months of fighting in Gaza, the Israeli military would find it difficult to wage an all-out war against a militant group with far superior firepower than Hamas.
Footage broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 showed a large explosion in one of the valleys of Majdal Shams, a Druze town on the Golan Heights that Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981. Some Druze are Israeli nationals, and although many remain sympathetic to Syria and reject Israeli annexation, their ties with Israeli society are growing stronger over the years.
Video footage shows paramedics carrying a stretcher off the football field and towards a waiting ambulance.
Resident Khair Mahmoud told Channel 12 that his children were playing football when the rocket hit the stadium, and that they heard sirens seconds before the rocket hit, but there was no time to evacuate.
Five students were among the dead, primary school principal Cihan Sefadi told Channel 12. “The situation here is very difficult. Parents are crying, people are screaming outside. No one understands what has happened.”
The Israeli military said analysis showed the rockets were fired from north of the village of Sheba in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military said it struck targets deep inside Lebanon as well as in southern Lebanon early Sunday. There were no reports of casualties and the attacks were less violent than those that have become routine over the past 10 months.
The attack on the soccer field just before sunset followed cross-border violence on Saturday in which Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed but did not say where. The Israeli military added that its air force targeted a Hezbollah arms depot in the border village of Kfar Kila where its fighters were inside at the time.
Hezbollah said its fighters carried out as many as 10 attacks on Israeli military positions using rockets and explosive drones. In the latest attack, they hit the Haramoun Brigade headquarters in Ma’ale Golani with Katyusha rockets. In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it had struck the same military position with short-range Falak rockets. The group said the attacks were in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon.
U.S. intelligence officials have no doubt that the attack on the Golan Heights was carried out by Hezbollah, but it is unclear whether the militant group intended to target it or whether it was a mistake, said a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.
The White House National Security Council said in a statement that the United States “will continue to support efforts to end the horrific attacks along the Blue Line – this must be a top priority. U.S. support for Israel’s security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist organizations, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.”
The Lebanese government statement, without mentioning Majdal Shams, called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned all attacks against civilians.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging gunfire since Oct. 8, the day after Hamas fighters entered southern Israel. The firefight along the Lebanese-Israeli border has intensified in recent weeks, with Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks reaching deeper and further out of Lebanon. Border.
The Israeli army said Majdal Shams, which does not share the border with Lebanon, was not among the border towns ordered evacuated as tensions escalated, but did not say why.
Officials from the United States, France and other countries have visited Lebanon to try to ease tensions but have made no progress. Hezbollah refuses to stop its attacks as long as Israel continues to attack Gaza. Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive war in 2006.
Saturday’s violence came as Israel and Hamas were discussing a proposed ceasefire to end the nearly 10-month war in Gaza and free some 110 hostages being held there. An Oct. 7 Hamas attack left about 1,200 people dead and 250 hostages taken captive. Israeli attacks have killed more than 39,000 people, 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. 45 people have been killed on the Israeli side, including at least 21 soldiers.
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Mroueh reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Ammar Madani in Washington contributed.
