At least ten dead in rocket attack on town in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah “will pay a high price for this attack that it has not yet paid,” his office said, after a rocket attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights killed at least 11 children and teenagers on Saturday.

It was the deadliest attack on an Israeli target on the country’s northern border since fighting began between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It raised fears of a larger regional war.

Israel blames Hezbollah for the attack, but Hezbollah was quick to decline any role.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS. The previous AP story follows below.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rocket attack on a soccer field killed at least 11 children and teenagers on Saturday, Israeli authorities said, in the deadliest attack on an Israeli target on the country’s northern border since fighting began between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It raised fears of a larger regional war.

Israel blamed Hezbollah for the attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah was quick to deny any involvement. The Israeli military described the incident as “very serious” and announced that it would act accordingly.

“Hezbollah fired a rocket at children playing soccer in northern Israel. Then they lied and claimed they did not carry out the attack,” said the military’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. He called it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the Hamas attack on October 7 that sparked the war in Gaza. He said 20 others were injured.

“There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all red lines here, and the reaction will reflect that,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s Channel 12. “We are approaching the moment when we face a full-scale war.”

Hezbollah’s chief spokesman, Mohammed Afif, told the Associated Press that the group “categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams.” It is unusual for Hezbollah to deny an attack.

The attack on the soccer field, just before sunset, followed earlier cross-border violence on Saturday, when Hezbollah killed three of its fighters, but did not say where. The Israeli military said its air force struck a Hezbollah weapons depot in the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.

Hezbollah said its fighters had carried out nine separate attacks with rockets and explosive drones on Israeli military posts, the last of which was a Katyusha rocket attack on the Haramoun Brigade army command in Maaleh Golani. Hezbollah said the attacks were in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon.

The Office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuwho was visiting the United States, said he would shorten his trip by several hours, but did not specify when he would return. He was said to be planning to convene the security cabinet upon his arrival.

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s government have called for a tough response against Hezbollah, but an open war with a militant group whose firepower far exceeds that of Hamas would be a test for Israel’s military after nearly 10 months of fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s Channel 12 broadcast footage of a large explosion in one of the valleys of the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981. Some Druze hold Israeli citizenship. Many still sympathize with Syria and opposed the Israeli annexation, but their ties to Israeli society have grown over the years.

A video showed paramedics carrying stretchers from the football field to waiting ambulances.

Ha’il Mahmoud, a local resident, 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 seek shelter.

The Israeli military said its analysis showed the rocket was fired from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon.

In a statement that did not mention Majdal Sham, the Lebanese government called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned all attacks on civilians.

Israel and Hezbollah have been trading blows since October 8, one day after Hamas militias invaded southern Israel. In recent weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border has intensified. Israeli airstrikes and Hezbollah rocket and drone attacks are hitting ever deeper and farther away from the border. Border.

Majdal Shams was not among the border communities that had to be evacuated as tensions rose, the Israeli military said, without giving a reason. The town is not directly on the border with Lebanon.

Representatives from countries such as the United States and France have visited Lebanon to ease tensions, but have failed to make any progress. Hezbollah refuses to stop shelling as long as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues. Israel and Hezbollah fought a war in 2006 without results.

Saturday’s violence comes as Israel and Hamas are considering a ceasefire that would end the nearly 10-month war in Gaza and release the roughly 110 hostages still held there. The Hamas attack on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. More than 39,000 people were killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.

Since the beginning of October, more than 450 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 44 people were killed, including at least 21 soldiers.

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Mroue reported from Beirut.