TEL AVIV, Israel: A rocket attack Saturday on a soccer field killed at least 11 children and teenagers, Israeli authorities said, in the deadliest attack on an Israeli target along the country's northern border since fighting began between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It raised fears of a wider regional war.
Israel blamed Hezbollah for the attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but Hezbollah was quick to deny any role. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price for this attack, a price they have not paid so far.”
The chief spokesman of the Israeli military, vice adm. Daniel Hagari, called it the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war. He said 20 others were injured.
“There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all the red lines here, and the response will reflect that,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel's Channel 12. “We are approaching the moment when we are facing an all-out 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 strike at the soccer field, just before sunset, followed earlier cross-border violence on Saturday, when Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed, without specifying where. Israel's military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot in the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.
Hezbollah said its soldiers carried out 10 different rocket and explosive drone attacks against Israeli military posts, the last of which targeted the army command of the Haramoun Brigade in Maaleh Golani with Katyusha rockets. In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it hit the same army post with a short-range Falaq rocket. It said the attacks were in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon.
The office of Netanyahu, who was visiting the United States, said he would cut his trip short by several hours, without specifying when he would return. It said he will convene the security cabinet after his arrival.
Far-right members of Netanyahu's government called for a tough response against Hezbollah. But an all-out war with a militant group with far superior firepower to Hamas would be a test for Israel's military after nearly 10 months of fighting in Gaza.
Footage broadcast on Israel's Channel 12 showed 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 have sympathies for Syria and reject Israeli annexation, but their ties to Israeli society have grown over the years.
The video showed paramedics rushing stretchers from the soccer field toward waiting ambulances.
Resident Ha'il Mahmoud told Channel 12 that children were playing soccer when the rocket hit the field. He said a siren sounded seconds before the rocket hit, but there was no time to take cover.
Jihan Sfadi, the principal of a primary school, told Channel 12 that five students were among the dead: “The situation here is very difficult. Parents are crying, people are screaming outside. Nobody can digest what has happened.”
Israel's military said its analysis showed the rocket was fired from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon.
The White House National Security Council said in a statement that 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 iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Lebanon's government, in a statement that did not name Majdal Sham, called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned all attacks on civilians.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire since October 8, a day after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel. In recent weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border has intensified, with Israeli airstrikes and rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah striking deeper and further from the border.
Majdal Shams had not been among border communities ordered to evacuate as tensions rose, Israel's military said, without saying why. The city is not directly on the border with Lebanon.
Officials from countries including the United States and France have visited Lebanon to try to ease tensions but have failed to make progress. Hezbollah has refused to stop firing as long as Israel's offensive in Gaza continues. Israel and Hezbollah fought an incomplete war in 2006.
Saturday's violence comes as Israel and Hamas consider a ceasefire proposal that would end the nearly 10-month war in Gaza and free the roughly 110 hostages who remain trapped there. Hamas' attack on October 7 killed around 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel's offensive 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.
