Children and teens made up the majority of those killed in Saturday’s attack on a Druze community under Israeli control; the Israeli military issued a warning of “all-out war.”
Golan Heights’ Majdal Shams At least 12 people, primarily children and teens, were killed by a missile that targeted a soccer field in Majdal Shams, an Israeli-controlled village in the Golan Heights, on Saturday night. The scene is marked by a single black flag of grief and an increasing number of flowers and bouquets.
The kids’ and teens’ e-scooters and bikes were abandoned a short distance away, with of the frames covered in shrapnel.
Although there is a bomb shelter a short distance from the playing field, locals said there wasn’t enough time to get there. Only a few seconds before the explosion, the sirens went off.
The murders sparked a series of counterattacks that are intensifying hostilities between two fiercely militarized troops who are already engaged in combat.
According to the Israeli military, since October 7, the attack on Majdal Shams was the worst on civilians within Israeli territory. As anger grew in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hurried back to Tel Aviv from the United States. The Israeli military blamed the strike on the terrorist organization in Lebanon that receives support from Iran and declared, “Israel is approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah.” “The IDF is poised and ready to defend the security of Israel.”
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, declared in a statement on Saturday that “we are in an escalating war.” “Children who are Israeli citizens of the Druze ethnicity have been targeted.”
After claiming on Saturday that the IDF had proof the missile that hit Majdal Shams was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 “owned exclusively by Hezbollah,” Hagari announced on Sunday that the Israel Defense Forces had destroyed seven targets “deep inside Lebanese territory.”
The Bekaa Valley, some 60 miles from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, is where Israel’s attacks were felt, but the most of the fighting had not yet spread. In comments released on Sunday, Hezbollah claimed that it had attacked northern Israeli military locations “in response to the enemy’s aggression.”
The Majdal Shams strike is not Hezbollah’s fault, according to the group. It is uncommon for the organization to refute an assault, and Hezbollah did admit that it had attacked adjacent military positions in the Golan Heights in a number of announcements released on Saturday. Hezbollah asserted in a statement that it had fired a Falaq-1 rocket, which Israel claims struck the soccer field. But the Hezbollah comments do not coincide exactly with the strike. The IDF claims Majdal Shams was struck at 6:18 p.m., whereas Hezbollah claims the Falaq-1 missile was fired at 5:20 p.m. local time.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his “deep sadness” over the deaths, saying during a press conference in Tokyo that there was “every indication” the missiles were from Hezbollah.
The attack occurred shortly before dusk, and video from Israel’s Channel 12 revealed a sizable explosion and a cloud of smoke rising from one of the valleys in Majdal Shams, a town home to the Druze, an ethnic and religious minority who speak Arabic.
The spiritual head of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Muafak Tarif, denounced “the brutal and murderous attack.”
He released a statement saying, “It’s impossible to imagine and describe the horrific images of children and their smashed [body] parts strewn on the grass.”
The Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967, is home to about 25,000 Druze people. The international world still views it as contested land that Israel has taken over from Syria.
Compared to its attack on Gaza, the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah has been rather quiet thus far. However, Hezbollah’s assurances that it would stand behind the Palestinians have resulted in persistent strikes against Israel. Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes on both sides of the border, and hundreds of people have perished in Lebanon, primarily as a result of Israeli fire.
Recent strikes have rekindled concerns about a possible escalation.
“This is precisely the kind of thing that can send us into a spiral,” stated Israel-based International Communities Organization’s Middle East director, Gershon Baskin.
Hezbollah’s capacity to harm Israel is a hundred times greater than that of Hamas, so they won’t take this lightly, according to Baskin. “Both sides’ arsenals of weapons are capable of causing tremendous damage and killing a great number of people.”
The escalation process is unplanned. It gets out of hand,” Baskin said.
Support for Israel’s security “is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” according to a statement from the White House National Security Council.
The United States has already attempted to avert a more serious conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Amos Hochstein, the White House envoy, declared during a June visit to Lebanon that the United States was working feverishly to end the hostilities.
U.S. sources familiar with the exchanges said that Israeli leaders have not wavered in their determination to take on Hezbollah in Lebanon, even in the face of pressure from the Biden administration.
After the attack on the Golan Heights, Netanyahu shortened his visit to the United States by a few hours. Without delay, he said that Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price, one that it has not paid so far,” and he threatened to exact revenge on the organization. According to the prime minister’s office, he landed in Israel on Sunday afternoon and was holding talks and an evaluation of the security situation with the political-security Cabinet.
The most recent violence occurs when Israel and Hamas are considering a cease-fire plan that would end the conflict, which has lasted for almost ten months. Netanyahu said on Friday that he will send a delegation to Rome to hold negotiations with Hamas about resolving the conflict. Bill Burns, the director of the CIA, will be visiting delegates from Qatar, Egypt, and Israel on behalf of the United States.
Fawaz Gerges, an international relations professor at the London School of Economics, thinks that ending the war in Gaza would be the quickest way to put an end to any escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah has stated that it will continue to launch attacks as long as Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues.
He declared, “Hezbollah can oppose Israel for years, not just months.” “Israel may suffer bleeding in ways it has never encountered before.”
According to Gerges, “the fighting between Israel, the Houthis, and Hezbollah will end once the guns in Gaza stop firing.”
