Ten teenagers dead in rocket attack on football pitch in Israeli-occupied Golan as IDF blames Hezbollah militant group
27 July 2024, 20:20 | Updated: 27 July 2024, 23:54
At least ten teenagers have been killed in a rocket attack on a football pitch in Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The Israeli military said all those killed in the attack were aged between 10 to 20, as the IDF blamed the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group for the deaths.
The strike on a field in the Majdal Shams region wounded several others and came after an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon killed three Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah chief spokesman Mohammed Afif told The Associated Press that the group "categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams."
Israeli chief spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari asserted to journalists that "Hezbollah is lying".
Hezbollah said it struck a military base in the Golan Heights in retaliation for Israeli attacks on a village in Lebanon.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Saturday that according to intelligence, the attack was carried out by Hezbollah.
"The Hezbollah terrorist organisation is behind the rocket launch at a soccer field in Majdal Shams which caused multiple civilian casualties, including children, earlier this evening," the statement said.
Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic service initially reported 11 people wounded, nine critically, and all between the ages of 10 and 20.
Israeli Public Broadcaster Kan aired footage of some being rushed to ambulances on stretchers from a football field in the town of Majdal Shams.
"These were kids at a soccer field," Beni Ben Muvchar, head of the local council, told Israeli Channel 12.
"Today a red line was crossed," he said, urging Israeli leaders to start targeting top Hezbollah commanders.
The Israeli military said one projectile was identified crossing from Lebanon toward the area, adding it was co-operating with the MDA to evacuate the wounded.
Hezbollah said in a statement that its militants firing Katyusha rockets at an Israeli army post in the Golan Heights was in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in south Lebanon.
The group said earlier that three of its members were killed on Saturday without specifying where.
Israel's military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah arms depot on the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed them in 1981.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily fire since the war in Gaza started after Hamas' surprise attack on October 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage.
Israel launched an offensive that has so far killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities, displaced more than 80% of the territory's people and triggered a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past few weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel intensified with Israeli airstrikes and rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah striking deeper and further away from the border.
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, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed.
