Israel reports ten dead in rocket attack on occupied Golan Heights | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

The Lebanese Hezbollah rejects the Israeli accusation that it was behind the attack on a football field in the Druze city of Majdal Shams.

At least ten people were killed and 20 others injured in a rocket attack on a football field in the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari said children were among those killed and accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah of carrying out Saturday’s attack. The group, however, denied any involvement.

“Our intelligence is clear. Hezbollah is responsible for the murder of innocent children,” Hagari said.

“We will prepare for a response against Hezbollah… we will act,” he said.

Hezbollah immediately denied responsibility for Saturday’s attack. In a statement, the group said it “categorically denies the allegations made by certain hostile media outlets and various media platforms regarding the attacks on Majdal Shams.”

“The Islamic Resistance has no connection to this incident,” it said, referring to its military wing.

The Iran-allied group has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces in areas near the Israeli-Lebanese border since October 8, when Israel began its war on Gaza.

The cross-border attacks, which Hezbollah says it has launched in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of Israel’s war on Gaza, have raised concerns that a larger regional conflagration could erupt.

Reporting from Qatar, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said Saturday’s attack was one of the deadliest incidents since cross-border firing began.

“Hezbollah says it is not theirs, while the Israelis immediately said it is them,” she said, adding that neither side wants a full-scale war, “but both sides have said they are prepared for it.”

The attack on the football field followed an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed four fighters on Saturday.

Two security sources in Lebanon said the four fighters killed in the Israeli attack on Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon were members of various armed groups, with at least one of them belonging to Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said its planes targeted a Hezbollah military building after identifying fighters entering the building.

Hezbollah said it had carried out at least four attacks, including Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Kfar Kila attacks.

The Golan Heights, a 1,200-square-kilometer plateau, is Syrian territory that Israel occupied in 1967 after the Six-Day War and annexed in 1981 – a move that the UN Security Council unanimously condemned.

Many residents of the area are Syrian Druze, some of whom have Israeli citizenship.