Mourners collect for funerals of kids killed by Hezbollah assault

Thousands of mourners gathered for the funerals of ‘at least 12’ children killed by a Hezbollah rocket attack on a football field on the Israel-controlled Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said they were struck on Saturday by an Iranian-made rocket that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group fired at a football field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams.

Local authorities said that 12 children aged between 10 and 16 years were killed in the attack, with several more in critical condition as 20 were wounded. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Hezbollah ‘will pay a heavy price, one that it has not paid so far’, according to his office, while IDF chief Herzi Halevi said the attack ‘will result in a very, very significant reaction’.

But Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the strike. 

Footage from the funeral processions today showed weeping men carrying small coffins through the crowded narrow streets of the town, which came to a standstill as residents were mourning the children.

The Druze follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Hundreds of men dressed in traditional attire, including white caps topped with red, attended the ceremonies, while others lined balconies to look down on the procession of white-covered caskets with white roses and gypsophila resting on top.

Under a scorching sun, some mourners carried large photos of the dead children, including one boy wearing a suit.

Earlier, several women dressed in black abaya robes cried as they laid flowers on the caskets, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.

‘Every night, every day, every minute we are worried. It’s been like this for 10 months,’ Laith, a 42-year-old nurse who gave only his first name, said.

Since October when war in the Gaza strip began, Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement have regularly exchanged fire over the border.

‘Everybody you see here is worried all the time,’ Laith said. ‘We are so very sad. We lost children, children playing soccer.’

It is the first time Majdal Shams has experienced such a loss during the war and it has hit hard, said Fadi Mahmud, 48, who works in construction sector.

‘Our community is very close-knit. These children are like children of everybody in the village,’ he said.

Checkpoints have been set up at the entrance to every village in the Golan.

Israel’s military called Saturday’s rocket strike a ‘very serious’ incident with their military chief spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, describing it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the Hamas attack on October 7 that triggered the war in Gaza.

He has since confirmed the IDF are preparing to respond to the Lebanese militant group, stating: ‘We will act’. 

But Ziyad, 63, who gave only a first name, said Majdal Shams doesn’t want to see an escalation.

‘Most people want to be in their house and deal with their grief. This is what is needed as opposed to overreacting,’ he said.

Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the attack branding Israel‘s accusations as ‘categorically’ ‘false allegations’.

In Majdal Shams many residents have not accepted Israeli nationality since Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967.

Violence since October has killed at least 527 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally. Most of the dead have been fighters, but the toll includes at least 104 civilians.

According to Israel’s army, 22 soldiers and 24 civilians have been killed so far in northern Israel.

The aerial attack came hours an Israeli strike in Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon that killed four with several being members of Hezbollah, according to Reuters and a statement from the group. 

Footage aired on Israeli Channel 12 showed a large blast in one of the valleys in the Golan Heights town, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed in 1981. 

Video showed paramedics rushing stretchers off of young people wearing sports shirts from the football pitch towards waiting ambulances. 

‘These were kids at a soccer field,’ Beni Ben Muvchar, head of the local council, told Israeli Channel 12 on Saturday. ‘Today a red line was crossed.’ 

‘We witnessed great destruction when we arrived at the soccer field, as well as items that were on fire,’ said Magen David Adom medic Idan Avshalom.

‘There were casualties on the grass and the scene was gruesome.’

Another witness said: ‘It landed in the soccer pitch, all of them are children. Many bodies and remains are in field we don’t know who they are.’ 

Ha’il Mahmoud, a resident of Majdal Shams, told Channel 12 that children were playing soccer when the rocket hit the field. 

He said a siren was heard seconds before the rocket hit, but there was no time to take shelter. 

Hezbollah and Israel have been trading fire since October 8 – a day after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel. 

The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that according to intelligence in its possession, ‘the rocket launch toward Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation’.

Hezbollah claimed at least four attacks, including with Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Kfar Kila attacks. 

However senior Hezbollah media representative Mohammad Afif has denied responsibility for the strike on Majdal Shams.

In a written statement, the group said: ‘The Islamic Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard.’

Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short his US visit – where he met president Joe Biden, vice-president Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump.

‘Immediately upon learning of the disaster, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed that his return to Israel be brought forward as quickly as possible,’ his office said. 

Lebanon’s government in a statement, without mentioning Majdal Shams, urged ‘immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts’ and condemned all attacks on civilians. 

The White House National Security Council also condemned the attack without directly blaming Hezbollah.

They said that the US ‘will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority’.

The statement continued: ‘Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.’

Saturday’s violence comes as Israel and Hamas are weighing a ceasefire proposal that would wind down the nearly 10-month war and free around 110 hostages who remain captive in Gaza.

Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.

Israel launched an offensive that has killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities.

Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. 

On the Israeli side, 44 have been killed, at least 21 of them soldiers.