Hezbollah Rocket Attack Kills Israeli Children Playing Football

Twelve Israeli children were killed and dozens more wounded on a football field after Hezbollah fired a rocket into a Druze community in the Golan Heights on Saturday. This is the highest number of Israeli civilian casualties since Oct. 7, 2023.

“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, who witnessed the strike.

Denial: Hezbollah denied responsibility for the attack even though the rocket, an Iran-made Falaq-1, was fired from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon. They might be denying responsibility because the Druze are Arabic-speaking people who were part of Syria until 1967.

“Hezbollah will pay a heavy price, the kind it has thus far not paid,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Druze community leader in a phone call, according to a statement from his office.

Hezbollah was on high alert after the attack as they anticipated a response from Israel. Flights to and from Lebanon’s Beirut airport were canceled as a precaution.

Response: Israel’s security cabinet on Sunday authorized its prime minister to decide on the “manner and timing” of Israel’s response. That same day, several targets in southern Lebanon were hit, with an additional air strike on Monday that killed two people and wounded three. Two Israeli officials said they expected the fighting would continue for multiple days.

While it is not in Israel’s interests to spread conflict in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said, “We are nearing the moment in which we face an all-out war.”

Watch: As conditions become increasingly volatile in the Middle East, the Trumpet expects Europe to become more involved.

Learn more: Read “Will Hezbollah Join the War Against Israel?”