JERUSALEM/BEIRUT >> A rocket attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 people, including children, Israeli officials said, blaming Hezbollah and vowing heavy punishment for the Iranian-backed Lebanese group.
Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Israel and Israeli-annexed territory since the start of the Gaza conflict.
The attack marked a sharp escalation of tensions in hostilities being fought in parallel to the Gaza war and raised fears of an all-out clash between the heavily armed rival forces.
The rocket hit a football field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, territory Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a way that is not recognised by most countries.
“Hezbollah will pay a heavy price, the like of which it has never paid before,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement from his office during a phone call with Israeli Druze leaders.
“The Islamic Resistance has absolutely no connection to this incident and categorically denies the false allegations in this matter,” Hezbollah said in a written statement.
Hezbollah had earlier announced several rocket attacks targeting Israeli military positions.
Israeli emergency services said a further 13 people were wounded when the rocket struck a football stadium which was packed with children and young people at the time.
“They were playing football and heard the siren and ran to the shelter. It might have taken them around 15 seconds, but they couldn't reach the shelter because the rocket fell between the ground and the shelter,” said witness Moulhaf Abu Saleh.
Footage posted on social media showed the moment the rocket hit, sounding air raid sirens and then a loud explosion and plumes of smoke. Reuters was able to independently confirm the location, as the layout of buildings and roads matched satellite imagery.
Idan Avshalom, a doctor at the Magen David Adom emergency service, said the first rescuers arrived at the scene of major destruction. “There were victims on the grass and the scene was dire,” he said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was already scheduled to return to Israel from the United States this evening, but said he would speed up his flight and convene a security cabinet meeting upon his arrival.
The United States, which has led diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the cross-border conflict between Lebanon and Israel, condemned the attack as horrific and said U.S. support for Israel's security was “ironclad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist organizations, including Lebanon's Hezbollah.”
“The United States continues to support efforts to end the horrific attacks along the Blue Line, which is the border between Lebanon and Israel, which must remain a top priority,” a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said in a statement.
The Israeli army said the rocket was fired from an area north of the village of Shebaa in southern Lebanon.
Israeli military spokesman Major General Daniel Hagari told reporters in Majdal Shams that forensic tests had shown the rocket was an Iranian-made Falak-1 type.
Hezbollah earlier said it had fired a Falak-1 missile today, targeting an Israeli military headquarters.
Hagari also said in a television statement that for now there had been no change in the Home Front Command's orders, suggesting the army did not expect an imminent escalation of tensions across Israel.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an ally of Prime Minister Netanyahu's far-right coalition, called for severe retaliation, including against Hezbollah leader Said Hassan Nasrallah.
“Nasrallah should pay with his head for the death of these children. The whole of Lebanon should pay,” Smotrich posted on X.
The conflict has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in both Lebanon and Israel, and Israeli attacks have killed around 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medical workers, children and journalists.
The Israeli army said after Saturday's attack that the number of civilians killed in Hezbollah attacks since October had risen to 23, with at least 17 soldiers killed.
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, told Reuters that force commanders were in contact with authorities in Lebanon and Israel “to obtain details about the Majdal Shams incident and to maintain calm.”
A senior diplomat for Lebanon said every effort was needed to avoid all-out war.
Hezbollah is the most powerful of a network of Iranian-backed groups across the Middle East that have joined the fighting since October in support of Palestinian ally Hamas.
Both Iraqi groups and Yemen's Houthi rebels have fired at Israel, as has Hamas, a Lebanese Sunni group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which has launched rocket attacks into Israel from Lebanon.
More than 40,000 people live in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, more than half of whom are Druze, an Arab minority group that practices a branch of Islam.
The attack on the soccer field came after an Israeli military strike in Lebanon today left four fighters dead. Two Lebanese security sources said the four fighters killed in the Israeli attack on Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon were members of different militant groups, at least one of whom was affiliated with Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had targeted a Hezbollah military facility after seeing a group of militants enter the building.
At least 30 rockets were then fired across the border from Lebanon, the military said.
