IDF claims that Hezbollah launched the worst strike on Israel in the conflict’s months, heightening concerns of an escalation.
Jerusalem – Hezbollah, a terrorist organization supported by Iran, launched a barrage of rockets into Israel on Saturday; at least one of them struck a soccer field where kids were playing near the Syrian border in the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams. So far, at least 12 deaths and about 29 injuries have been recorded; the most of the casualties are said to be between the ages of 10 and 20.
The most horrific death toll in the north since Hezbollah joined the conflict on behalf of Hamas on October 7 occurred on the soccer field in the town, which is primarily home to Druze people.
In a statement released soon after the incident, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) directly blamed Hezbollah. “An IDF tactical assessment and the data at our disposal indicate that the terrorist group Hezbollah was responsible for the rocket fire toward Majdal Shams. The rocket launch earlier this evening against a Majdal Shams soccer field that resulted in several civilian deaths, including children, was orchestrated by the terrorist group Hezbollah.”
A political source claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was still in the United States at the time of the incident, received updates and held situational assessments.
TPS News agency quoted the Prime Minister’s office as saying that Netanyahu “made clear that Israel will not allow the murderous attack to simply pass on by, and that Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for this that it has not paid to this point” during his conversation with the spiritual head of Israel’s 152,000 Druze population.
The TPS reported in the same article that the spiritual head of the Druze, Sheikh Muafek Tarif, described the attack as “cruel and murderous.”
As soon as Netanyahu returns to Israel on Sunday from his trip to the United States, he will convene with his security cabinet.
Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, together with the IDF’s Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, were conducting a situational assessment on the attack.
The IDF said approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing into Israel from Lebanon on Saturday. The U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah is the de facto ruler over Lebanon.
According to foxnews
the country’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on a TV news show that, “We are approaching the moment of an all-out war in the north against Hezbollah, we will react in a disproportionate way,” he reportedly said in a translated note on X by Israeli journalists Ben Caspit and Dafna Liel.