CNN
—
Israel has blamed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children and vowed that the group will “pay a price”, reviving fears that all-out war could engulf the region.
Hezbollah said it “categorically denies” that it was behind the attack, the deadliest to hit Israel and Israeli-controlled territory since the October 7 attacks.
Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes late Sunday night “deep inside Lebanese territory” and on Hezbollah positions along the border, the army said in a statement Sunday morning. It was not immediately clear whether the strikes caused any casualties.
And Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who visited the town of Majdal Shams near the Syrian-Lebanese border where Saturday's rocket attack killed children and young people, promised a tough response.
“Hezbollah is responsible for this and will pay a price,” Gallant said in an earlier statement from his office, adding that “we will hit our enemies hard.”
Saturday's attack on the area involved “around 30 projectiles” being fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory, and the Israeli military immediately blamed it on Iran-backed militant groups.
The blast killed 12 children and injured 44 others, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
The children killed in the attack were playing on a soccer field, according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry list and residents who spoke to CNN. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken supported Israel's assessment on Sunday, saying “all indications” suggest the attack was the result of rockets fired by Hezbollah.
View this interactive content on CNN.com
About 20,000 Druze Arabs live on the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981. About 25,000 Israeli Jewish settlers also live in the area, which is considered occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
Most of the Druze there identify as Syrian and have rejected the offer of Israeli citizenship, and the Majdal Shams local council said Sunday that none of the 12 children killed were Israeli nationals.
Hundreds of mourners lined the streets on Sunday for a funeral procession to honour the victims of the strike, with some dressed in black sang songs and others laying wreaths as a white coffin was carried to the funeral home.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid spoke at the funeral, saying: “The children who died on that soccer field could have been any of our children, so they are truly each and every one of our children. They are our children.”
But at the event, many residents denounced Israel's far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and gathered around him, demanding that he leave. He was eventually removed by security.
Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
Druze elders and mourners surround the coffins of 10 children killed in Saturday's attack.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging rocket fire on a near-daily basis since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and the exchanges have become increasingly volatile, raising repeated fears that a war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip could escalate into a conflict on multiple fronts in the Middle East.
Hezbollah acknowledged Saturday's attacks in the Golan Heights but denied responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams.
“We can confirm that the Islamic Resistance Movement has no connection to this incident and categorically reject the false allegations in this regard,” the statement said.
Hezbollah public relations director Mohammed Afif told CNN on Sunday that the militant group was in a “state of mobilization” and had vacated several military sites as a result of Israeli airstrikes last night. Afif did not provide details on the locations or number of sites that had been vacated.
While Israel's initial overnight response did not appear to warrant an attack that would spark all-out war, it marked an extremely tense day in the region.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani on Sunday warned Israel against “any new adventures” aimed at Lebanon. The statement said Israel “does not have the minimum moral authority to comment or judge the events that took place in the Majdal Shams area, nor can it heed the claims of this regime against other countries.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Saturday that he was cutting short a visit to the United States by a few hours and returning to Israel because of the attack, and said he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet immediately after returning home.
The prime minister said he was “shocked” by the attack. “I can assure you that the State of Israel will not be silent on this matter. We will not take this issue off the agenda,” he said.
Egypt's foreign minister warned on Sunday of “the risk of opening a new front in Lebanon.” He called on “the major forces of the international community to intervene immediately” to prevent a protracted conflict.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct the number of Israeli Jewish settlers in the Golan Heights.
