Israel vows to respond 'with force' after deadly strike on annexed Golan

Photo: Menahem Kahana Agence France-Presse A rocket fired from Lebanon on a soccer field in the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams killed 12 youths aged 10 to 16 on Saturday and injured about 30 others, Israel said.

Chloé Rouveyrolles-Bazire – Agence France-Presse to Majdal Shams

Published at 9:36 Updated at 11:09

• Middle East

Israel vowed Sunday to “strike the enemy with force” the day after a deadly strike on the annexed Syrian Golan Heights, blamed on Lebanese Hezbollah, raising fears of a regional conflagration in the midst of war in the Gaza Strip.

Iran has warned Israel of the “consequences” of a retaliatory attack in Lebanon. “Any action… can lead to the escalation” of “the war in the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.

A rocket fired from Lebanon at a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams killed 12 boys and girls aged 10 to 16 on Saturday and wounded about 30 others, according to Israel. Police reported Sunday that an 11-year-old boy was missing.

The strike was carried out using an Iranian Falaq rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead, Israel said. Hezbollah, which denies carrying out the attack, is the only one to have them, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

He said the Iranian-backed Lebanese Islamist movement had “crossed all red lines” by shooting “at civilians.”

Hezbollah will pay “a high price” for the attack, warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned Sunday from a trip to the United States to chair a security cabinet meeting.

“Act with cold blood”

The shooting came after news of the deaths of four Hezbollah fighters in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon. On Saturday evening, the Lebanese movement said it had launched rockets towards military positions in the Golan, including a Falaq, before denying being behind the firing on Majdal Shams.

This small Druze town is located on the Golan Heights, a strategic region at the crossroads of three countries (Syria, Lebanon, Israel) that was largely conquered by Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Israel annexed two-thirds of it in 1981, but the international community has never recognized this annexation.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the soccer field in Majdal Shams on Sunday. In a discussion with the head of the Druze community in Israel, he “insisted” that Israel would “strike the enemy with force,” according to his ministry.

Photo: Menahem Kahana Agence France-Presse The funerals for the victims of the attack on the Golan Heights took place on Sunday.

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Thousands of people gathered in the city on Sunday for the funerals of the victims, during which women dressed in black abayas and white veils crowded around the coffins.

It was “the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since October 7,” the date of the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip, according to Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli army.

The UN warned of a “wider conflagration” in the region, the European Union called for an “independent international investigation” and Berlin urged “action with coolness”. Paris condemned the attack, as did the United Kingdom, which said it feared an “escalation”.

Lebanon called for an “international investigation” and warned that an Israeli attack on its territory could spark a regional conflagration. Egypt warned of “the dangers of opening a new front in Lebanon”.

Washington pledged to “support Israel’s efforts” to “put an end to these terrible attacks”. For US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “all indications” show that the rocket was fired by Hezbollah.

Syria, for its part, denounced Israel's “false accusations” against the Lebanese movement.

“It could have been a missed shot or an Israeli defense missile meant to intercept an air target,” said Riad Kahwaji, director of the Near East and Gulf Institute for Military Analysis (INEGMA).

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, has been exchanging fire daily with the Israeli army on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Meeting planned in Rome

Meanwhile, the war continues in the besieged Gaza Strip, devastated by nearly ten months of war.

It was triggered after the unprecedented attack by commandos from the Hamas infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 111 are still being held in Gaza, 39 of whom are dead, according to the army.

The Israeli offensive launched in response has left at least 39,324 dead, including 66 in the last 48 hours, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government, which does not provide information on the number of civilians and fighters killed.

On Sunday, Israeli gunfire targeted Gaza City (north) and the Nusseirat (north) and al-Bureij (center) camps, according to Hamas, which took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.

In the south, gunfire rang out in Rafah and the army blew up several residential buildings in Khan Younis where it continues to carry out operations, according to witnesses.

The day before, an airstrike An Israeli attack on a school housing refugees in the center left 30 people dead, according to the Palestinian Islamist movement. The army said it targeted “terrorists” operating there.

After the failure of multiple negotiations on a truce associated with the release of hostages, a meeting of representatives of the mediators – Egypt, the United States, Qatar – with the head of Israeli intelligence is to take place on Sunday in Rome.

Considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the EU, Hamas accuses Benjamin Netanyahu, who has sworn to destroy it, of blocking any agreement.