An Iranian-made projectile kills at least twelve young people during a soccer match. The shocking incident on the Golan Heights fuels fears of a major regional war.
A devastating rocket attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights has killed at least twelve young people and increased the risk of a larger war in the region. Israel blamed the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, which is allied with Iran, for the attack and threatened a harsh response. According to military sources, the Israeli Air Force bombed several Hezbollah targets in Lebanon during the night.
The incident sparked international dismay and concern about an escalation of violence in the region. UN representatives called on both parties to exercise “the greatest possible restraint”. The USA and the EU also condemned the attack.
The deadly incident in Majdal Shams was the worst so far on the Israeli side since fighting with Hezbollah began nearly ten months ago. The rocket attack in the Golan Heights followed an Israeli attack in the village of Kfar Kila near the Lebanese-Israeli border in which Hezbollah said four of its members were killed.
Mainly children and young people killed on football pitch
At least twelve people aged between 10 and 20 were killed on Saturday in the rocket attack in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, most of them children and young people. According to Israeli sources, an Iranian-made rocket hit a busy soccer field there. Eyewitnesses described gruesome scenes with mangled corpses. Thousands of people attended the funeral of the young victims.
Hezbollah said in a statement that it had nothing to do with the attack. However, Israel dismissed this as false. During a visit to the site of the impact, Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said that it was a Falak rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead. It was a Hezbollah rocket. “Anyone who fires such a rocket at a residential area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children.”
Disputed, strategically important area
The Golan Heights is a strategically important rocky plateau, about 60 kilometers long and 25 kilometers wide. The plateau was conquered by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967 and annexed in 1981. However, this was not recognized internationally. Under international law, the areas are considered Israeli-occupied Syrian territory. Former US President Donald Trump formally recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory in March 2019, thereby reversing US foreign policy.
The rocket attack hit a place where mainly Arabic-speaking Druze live. The religious community emerged from Shiite Islam in the eleventh century. In Israel, many Druze serve in the army.
Israel: Last chance for diplomacy
A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry said there was only one way to prevent a full-scale war, “which would also be devastating for Lebanon.” Hezbollah must be forced to withdraw beyond the Litani River in accordance with a UN resolution, wrote Oren Marmorstein at X. This is 30 kilometers from the border between Israel and Lebanon. “Now it is the very last minute to do this diplomatically.”
In an effort to defuse the situation, US envoy Amos Hochstein spoke with leading Druze politician Walid Jumblatt in Lebanon. Hochstein expressed concern about the deadly attack in Majdal Shams, Jumblatt’s office said. It is necessary for Israel to immediately stop its attacks in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, the former MP said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened: “Hezbollah will pay a high price for this, a price it has not yet paid.” He convened the security cabinet after his return from the USA. Netanyahu had given a speech to Congress in the USA and met with US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President and presidential candidate Donald Trump. He brought forward his departure from Washington by several hours.
Expert believes miss is possible
Israeli military expert Sarit Zehavi pointed out that before the fatal incident, the Shiite militia had claimed responsibility for attacks on an Israeli military base on Mount Hermon. “It is very easy to miss the base on Mount Hermon with inaccurate rockets such as the Falak,” she said. Majdal Shams is located directly below it.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, says it is preparing for a possible serious attack by Israel. “We have been on standby for months and are on the lookout for any attack by the enemy,” the German Press Agency learned from militia circles.
“We urge the parties to exercise the greatest possible restraint and to end the ongoing heavy firefights,” said a joint statement from the head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Aroldo Lázaro, and the special coordinator for the country, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert. The fighting “could spark a larger conflagration that would plunge the entire region into an unimaginable catastrophe,” warned the two UN representatives.
Baerbock: Attacks must stop immediately
A spokesman for the US National Security Council condemned the rocket attack and said in a statement: “Our support for Israel’s security against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including the Lebanese Hezbollah, is ironclad and unwavering.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell was shocked by the attack. “We call on all sides to exercise extreme restraint and to avoid any further escalation,” he said on the X platform.
“The perfidious attacks must stop immediately. We must now act with cool head,” wrote German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on X. Her condolences go out to the families.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war last October, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been fighting almost daily. The Iranian-backed militia is acting in solidarity with Hamas, which is also active in Lebanon. According to official figures, more than 100 civilians and around 360 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Lebanon. According to Israeli figures, 42 people have been killed on the Israeli side, including 23 civilians.
Iranian reaction
Israel’s arch-enemy Iran blamed the Jewish state itself for the attack in Majdal Shams. “This massacre is a war against humanity and violates all internationally recognized laws and regulations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, according to the Isna news agency.
The Iranian ambassador in Lebanon, however, struck a different tone. Despite the deadly rocket attack, he saw little risk of an even larger war in the Middle East, said Ambassador Mujtaba Amani. The chances of this happening were “very low” because there was an “imposed balance of power” in the region. Iran did not want the conflict with Israel to escalate, but was not afraid of it either.
Talks on ceasefire in Gaza war in Rome
Meanwhile, the head of the Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad, David Barnea, held talks in Rome about a ceasefire in the Gaza war. The indirect talks between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, in which the USA, Qatar and Egypt are mediating, have been very slow for months. Since May, they have revolved around a multi-stage plan by US President Joe Biden, which ultimately envisages a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza war. In addition, the hostages held by Hamas are to be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre with 1,200 deaths that the Islamists of Hamas, together with other groups from the Gaza Strip, committed in southern Israel on October 7 of the previous year. According to Palestinian sources, at least 30 people were killed in an Israeli air raid on a school building in Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The Israeli military said it had attacked a Hamas command center there.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
