At least 11 people — mostly children and young adults between the ages of 10 and 20 — were killed on Saturday when a Hezbollah rocket struck a soccer field in Israel-controlled Golan Heights in what is now the deadliest attack on the Jewish state since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion.
The shelling by the Lebanese terror group targeted the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams, officials confirmed, adding such an escalation could ramp up the ongoing war even further.
After receiving word of Hezbollah’s attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed back to Israel, from Washington, DC, moving his flight up by three and a half hours.
Netanyahu was still in the nation’s capital on Saturday after addressing Congress Wednesday and meeting with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Up to 40 people were reported injured in the attack, with a handful listed in critical condition.
Hezbollah denies carrying out the attack, which unfolded hours after an Israeli airstrike on south Lebanon killed three members of the militant Hezbollah group.
Israeli leadership immediately gathered to weigh its response.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz discussed the deadly attack with Netanyahu and declared that “Hezbollah crossed all red lines” and Israel was now “facing an all-out war” with the Lebanese terrorists.
“I have no doubt that we’ll pay a cost,” he said, adding Hezbollah will pay a higher toll for its actions.
When the Jewish state does retaliate, Katz claimed it would have the “full backing” of the United States and Europe.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) issued a statement shortly after the attack, saying, “Since October 7, Hezbollah has been bombarding Israel with rockets, displacing up to [100,000] Israelis and terrorizing many more. The murder of [these] children is the latest manifestation of Hezbollah’s unrelenting terror.”
Hezbollah said it “has no connection to the incident at all, and categorically denies all false allegations.” The Iran-backed group did not suggest another culprit.
Israel Defense Forces issued a statement putting the blame on the Iran-backed group, which has been lobbing rockets over Israel’s northern border since the war with Hamas started after that terror organization’s brutal October 7 attack on Southern Israel.
In other developments, Israel once again warned Palestinians in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to evacuate on Saturday before conducting armed raids on military facilities and possible Hamas terrorist cells.
The IDF also reportedly destroyed a launch site in the district of Zeitoun, from where Hamas previously launched missiles and drones aimed at Israel.
IDF soldiers also shelled a school Saturday, responding to intelligence that Hamas militants had returned and re-embedded themselves there, and established a command center with a cache of weapons.
Reports indicate the airstrike on the Khadija school in Deir-al Balah killed approximately 30 people with another 100 said to have sustained serious injuries. Thousands of people were sheltering at the school at the time.
Many of the wounded were women and children, an Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital official said.
Separately, Israel reportedly presented U.S. officials with an updated hostage and ceasefire deal on Saturday, an Israeli senior official and two other inside sources told Axios reporter Barak Ravid.
The proposal came ahead of another round of peace talks in Rome starting Sunday that will be joined by CIA director Bill Burns, along with Mossad’s director David Barnea, the Prime Minister of Qatar and the head of Egypt’s intelligence.
Hamas was accused of being “obstinate” on the resolution of the conflict, insisting any deal for peace include provisions establishing how the war will be ended and further mandating Israel withdraw all troops from Gaza.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing a separate barrage of rockets from Gaza towards southern Israel.
Three rockets were fired from Gaza at the community of Ashkelon, marking the first attack launched by Jihadists this month.
One of the rockets was taken out by the infamous Iron Dome while the two others struck open areas, resulting in zero casualties.
With Post wires
