Smoke and fire covers the area near Kiryat Shmona, Israel, close to its border with Lebanon, following rocket and drone attacks by the Hezbollah from Lebanon, June 3, 2024. (Ayal Margolin/REUTERS)
Israel blamed Hezbollah for a Golan Heights rocket attack on a football ground that killed 12 people including children on Saturday, Israeli authorities said, vowing to inflict a heavy price on the Iran-backed Lebanese group.
Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the strike, the
deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since the start
of the conflict in Gaza.
The attack sharply escalated tensions in the hostilities
which have been fought in parallel to the Gaza war and has
raised fears of a full-blown conflict between the heavily armed
adversaries.
The rocket struck a football pitch in the Druze village of
Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, territory
captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and
annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
“Hezbollah will pay a heavy price, the kind it has thus far
not paid,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone
call with the leader of the Druze community in Israel, according
to a statement from his office.
In a written statement, Hezbollah said: “The Islamic
Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and
categorically denies all false allegations in this regard”.
Hezbollah had earlier announced several rocket attacks
targeting Israeli military positions.
The Israeli ambulance service said 13 more people were
wounded by the rocket that hit the soccer pitch which was filled
at the time with children and teenagers.
“They were playing soccer, they heard sirens they ran to
shelter…it may take them like 15 seconds (to reach the
shelter). But they couldn’t reach the shelter because the rocket
hit the site between the ground and the shelter,” said Mourhaf
Abu Saleh, a witness.
Footage posted on social media showed the moment the rocket
hit. An air raid siren can be heard, followed by a big explosion
and images of smoke rising. Reuters was able to independently
verify the location with the buildings and road layout that
matched the satellite imagery of the area.
Idan Avshalom, a medic with the Magen David Adom ambulance
service, said first responders arrived to a scene of great
destruction. “There were casualties on the grass and the scene
was gruesome,” he said.
Netanyahu, already due to head back from the United States
to Israel overnight on Saturday, said he would bring his flight
forward and convene his security cabinet upon arrival.
The United States, which has been leading diplomatic efforts
aimed at de-escalating the conflict across the Lebanese-Israeli
border, condemned it as a horrific attack and said U.S. support
for Israel’s security was “iron-clad and unwavering against all
Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah”.
The United States “will continue to support efforts to end
these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top
priority,” the spokesperson for the White House National
Security Council said in a statement. The Blue Line refers to
the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
Source link : https://stratnewsglobal.com/west-asia/israel-west-asia/israel-blames-hezbollah-for-golan-heights-rocket-attack-12-killed-including-children/
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Publish date : 2024-07-28 01:52:13
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