No less than 11 individuals have been killed and 19 others wounded in a rocket assault on a soccer pitch within the city of the Majdal Shams within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli authorities mentioned.
Israel’s army spokesman Daniel Hagari mentioned youngsters had been amongst these killed and accused the Lebanese group Hezbollah of finishing up the assault on Saturday, however the group denied any involvement.
“Our intelligence is evident. Hezbollah is accountable for the killing of harmless youngsters,” Hagari mentioned.
“We’ll put together for a response towards Hezbollah … we are going to act,” he mentioned.
Hezbollah swiftly denied duty for the assault on Saturday. The group mentioned in an announcement it “categorically denies the allegations reported by sure enemy media and varied media platforms regarding the concentrating on of Majdal Shams”.
“The Islamic Resistance has no connection to this incident,” it mentioned, referring to its army wing.
The Iran-aligned group has been exchanging fireplace with Israeli forces in areas close to the Israel-Lebanon border since October 8, when Israel launched its warfare on Gaza.
The cross-border assaults, which Hezbollah mentioned it launched in solidarity with the Palestinian individuals amid Israel’s warfare on Gaza, have led to fears of a bigger regional conflagration.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned he would fly dwelling early from his journey to the US, the place he met a number of senior US officers.
“Instantly upon studying of the catastrophe in Majdal Shams, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directed that his return to Israel be introduced ahead as shortly as attainable,” Netanyahu’s workplace mentioned in a publish on X.
Netanyahu additionally instructed the chief of the Druze neighborhood in Israel, “Hezbollah pays a heavy value, the type it has to this point not paid,” throughout a cellphone name, based on an announcement from his workplace.
A spokesperson for the White Home Nationwide Safety Council condemned the rocket assault, stating, “Our help for Israel’s safety is iron-clad and unwavering towards all Iranian-backed terrorist teams, together with Lebanese Hezbollah,”.
Lebanon’s authorities, in an announcement, urged the “rapid cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned assaults on civilians.
Fears of escalation
Reporting from Qatar, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut mentioned Saturday’s assault was one of many deadliest single incidents for the reason that cross-border fireplace started and comes amid rising fears of an escalation.
“Hezbollah is saying this isn’t from them, whereas the Israelis instantly mentioned it was them,” she mentioned, including that neither facet needs an all-out warfare, “however each side have mentioned they’re ready for it.”
Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz warned that “now issues can actually get uncontrolled”.
“It’s a dramatic second. We don’t know what might be subsequent. There may be lots of uncertainty. The approaching hours might be decisive,” he instructed Al Jazeera.
“I don’t see Israel ignoring this incident.”
Political analyst Ori Goldberg mentioned he believed it was unlikely the assault would result in an “all-out warfare” between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Each side don’t need an all-out warfare, this has been made abundantly clear”, he instructed Al Jazeera, and famous that the assault came about on Israel’s periphery, quite than in its heartland. “I don’t suppose that this might be sufficient to take us to an all-out warfare,” he mentioned.
The assault on the soccer pitch adopted an Israeli assault in Lebanon that killed 4 fighters on Saturday.
Two safety sources in Lebanon mentioned the 4 fighters killed within the Israeli assault on Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon had been members of various armed teams, with no less than one in every of them belonging to Hezbollah.
The Israeli army mentioned its plane had focused a army construction belonging to Hezbollah after figuring out fighters coming into the constructing.
Hezbollah claimed it carried out no less than 4 assaults, together with with Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Kfar Kila assaults.
The Golan Heights, a 1,200sq-kilometre (463sq-mile) plateau, is Syrian territory that Israel occupied in 1967 after the Six-Day Struggle, earlier than annexing it in 1981, a transfer the United Nations Safety Council unanimously condemned.
Many residents within the territory are Syrian Druze, a few of whom have Israeli citizenship.
