Photo: Leo Correa Associated Press Mourners from the Druze minority surrounded the bodies of 12 children and teenagers killed in a rocket attack on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Sunday, July 28.
Published at 15:59 Updated at 18:14
With closed faces and tears in their eyes, thousands of Druze climbed the steep streets of Majdal Shams on Sunday to attend the funerals of young people killed the day before in this small town by a rocket falling on the Golan Heights, largely annexed by Israel.
“This is the first time that a tragedy of this magnitude has happened here,” laments Fadi Mahmoud, a 48-year-old construction contractor, born in this Druze land on the borders of Syria and Lebanon. “These children belong to everyone here, we all know each other, our community is very close-knit,” he says.
A human tide floods the alleys, people from Israel's Druze community (an Arabic-speaking minority of about 150,000 people) have come from everywhere, including the Galilee. Some of them drove more than an hour to find their loved ones, all dressed in black.
Hundreds of notables and religious figures, wearing traditional clothing, including a white veil covering the mouth for women and a tarboosh girded with a white cloth for men, also accompanied a procession from which prayers and songs of mourning rose.
“Leave our children out of these wars,” murmured a woman in a sob from the middle of the procession.
In the wake of coffins covered with white sheets and baby's breath, relatives collapse. In front of them, young people carry portraits of the deceased, who were aged 10 to 16 and were on a football field below the city before the tragedy the day before.
The Israeli army claimed that the rocket fired from Lebanon by the Iran-backed Islamist movement Hezbollah was Iranian-made and that it carried a 50-kilogram warhead that exploded on the field, adjacent to a playground.
The torn fence now overlooks the charred carcasses of bicycles and scooters scattered on the ground.
A few elected members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) come to offer their condolences and answer questions from a crowd of journalists.
Photo: Leo Correa Associated Press On Sunday, July 28, hundreds of notables and religious figures, wearing traditional clothing, including a tarboosh girded with a white cloth for men, also accompanied a procession from which prayers and songs of mourning rose.
In the crowd, many expressed their fears about the war that broke out on October 7 between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and its consequences beyond the Palestinian territory, particularly for their city near the border with Lebanon.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Hezbollah has since been exchanging almost daily fire with Israel, with the Lebanese Islamist movement claiming to support its ally Hamas and the Palestinians in Gaza. Israel launched the war there after Hamas launched a bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
“The mourning of Majdal Shams was caused by the ongoing war [in Gaza], and it should bring everyone together, show that we really need the war to stop,” says Ziyad, a 63-year-old man who did not want to give his last name.
On the fringes, a few are getting heated, reflecting the divisions within this community, which is a branch of Shiite Islam and is spread across three countries.
“I feel like it's beyond our control”
“I feel like it's beyond our control”
“It's beyond our control”
“I feel like it's beyond our control”
“It's beyond our control”
“It's beyond our control”
“I feel “I'm so scared,” says Amani Safadi, a 22-year-old student, who adds that the residents of Majdal Shams have also been hearing “all the explosions” for almost ten months.
According to Israeli authorities, 22 soldiers and 24 civilians have been killed by Hezbollah fire since October 7.
The mourning of Majdal Shams was caused by the ongoing war [in Gaza], and it should bring everyone together, show that we really need the war to stop.
— Ziyad
“If we had 10 percent hope [that the situation would improve], now we have none of that,” said Salina Kablan, 22, who came to support her cousin, Salman Srayaldeen, who was standing near the soccer field vigil.
“We feel trapped,” she adds, “the Druze people are good, and we are just living on this land, we are civilians.”
“Since yesterday, the war has also been here,” adds Mr. Srayaldeen, who hopes that the Israeli prime minister will travel to Majdal Shams.
In the stadium at the foot of the limestone ridges above which the rockets cross the sky, below clusters of pretty houses with balconies overflowing with bougainvillea and planters of bindweed, 12 black-covered chairs have been set up on the lawn in front of a ball, also surrounded by black. When passers-by spot them, many burst into tears.
Hezbollah has evacuated positions in Lebanon after Israel threatened to strike it “with force” in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack on the annexed Golan Heights, a source close to the powerful pro-Iranian movement told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday.
Israel has promised to “strike the enemy with force” in the wake of the strike, which it blamed on Hezbollah and which left 12 dead on the annexed Syrian Golan Heights, raising fears of a regional conflagration in the midst of a war in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah, which has denied being behind the strike, “evacuated certain positions in the south and in the Bekaa Valley [east] that it believes could constitute a target for Israel,” the source close to the group told AFP on Sunday. AFP.
Hezbollah is strongly established in the Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria, as well as in southern Lebanon, from where it has been carrying out almost daily attacks against Israel since the start of the war in Gaza nearly ten months ago.
The formation armed and financed by Iran is also deployed in Syria, where it supports the power of President Bashar al-Assad.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, pro-Iranian and Hezbollah-linked groups have also evacuated positions around Damascus as well as in the part of the Golan under Syrian control.
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