At least eleven dead, including children, on the Golan Heights: Israel blames Hezbollah for rocket attack

At least 11 people were killed and several others, including children, injured in a rocket attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Saturday, Israel said, hours after an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon killed three members of the militant Hezbollah group.

The attack was the deadliest attack on an Israeli target since fighting broke out between the two enemies in October and raised fears of a wider fire in the region. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is returning home as soon as possible after a trip to the USA, his office said.

Saturday was a day of “near-total war” between Israel and Hezbollah following the rocket attack that killed children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel, a US official confirmed to CBS News. Officials said the attack was a “horror scenario” feared by Biden officials – and mass casualties would force a tougher Israeli response than the usual tit-for-tat.

White House officials are making phone calls to de-escalate the situation and contain the consequences.

“We condemn this horrific attack in which several teenagers and children were reportedly killed while playing soccer in the village of Majdal Shams in northern Israel on a Saturday night,” a National Security Council spokesman said.

“Israel continues to face serious threats to its security, as the world saw today, and the United States will continue to support efforts to end these horrific attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority. Our support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.”

Hezbollah said it had a military base in the Golan Heights in retaliation for Israeli attacks on a village in Lebanon.

Hezbollah chief spokesman Mohammed Afif told the Associated Press that the group “categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams.”

Chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters that “Hezbollah is lying.” He said all 11 people killed were between 10 and 20 years old and more than 20 others were injured.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that, according to the intelligence information it had, “the rocket launch at Majdal Shams was carried out by the terrorist organization Hezbollah.”

“The terrorist organization Hezbollah is behind the rocket launch at a soccer field in Majdal Shams, which caused numerous civilian casualties, including children, this evening,” the statement said.

The Israeli medical service Magen David Adom initially reported 11 injured, nine of them in critical condition, and all between the ages of 10 and 20. The Israeli public broadcaster Kan aired footage showing some of them being carried on stretchers from a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams to ambulances.

“These were children on a soccer field,” Beni Ben Muvchar, chairman of the local council, told Israeli broadcaster Channel 12. “Today a red line was crossed,” he said, calling on the Israeli leadership to take targeted action against high-ranking Hezbollah commanders.

The Israeli military said it had identified a projectile heading toward the area from Lebanon, adding that it was working with the MDA to evacuate the injured. Channel 12 broadcast footage of a large explosion in one of the city’s valleys.

Hezbollah said in a statement that its militants fired Katyusha rockets at an Israeli army post in the Golan Heights in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon. The group had previously said three of its members were killed on Saturday, but did not say where. The Israeli military said its air force had attacked a Hezbollah weapons depot in the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed them in 1981.

Israel and Hezbollah have acted almost daily shelling since the war in Gaza after Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7 killed about 1,200 people and took 250 more hostage. Israel launched an offensive that has so far more than 39,000 people diedhas displaced more than 80% of the area’s population, according to local health authorities, and triggered a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border has intensified with Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks that have struck ever further from the border.

Since the beginning of October, more than 450 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, mainly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians were killed before Saturday.

Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.