Hezbollah Strike Crosses Red Line

Note: This article was updated on 28th July.

On Saturday evening a Hezbollah rocket killed 12 young people, mostly children, who were playing football in the town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. Another 32 youngsters were thought to injured, 6 seriously, and taken to the Ziv hospital in Safed.

The number of casualties makes it the most serious incident on Israel’s northern front, and the event with the most Israeli civilian casualties since 7th October. Those casualties prompted Hezbollah to change its statements after initially claiming responsibility for the attack. As the death toll rose, it later denied responsibility and claimed the casualties were caused by an Israeli interceptor missile.

But the IDF confirmed it was a Hezbollah rocket that killed the youngsters. It was part of a series of attacks during the day which was Hezbollah’s response to an IDF strike that killed four members of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Forces in southern Lebanon.

The IDF Chief of Staff later explained:

"We know exactly where the rocket was launched from.
We examined here on the wall of the soccer field the remains of the rocket,
and we know to say that it is a Falaq rocket with a fifty-three-kilogram warhead.
This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever fires such a rocket into an urban area
wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children."

In an initial response, the Israeli Air Force struck Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon and in the south overnight, including weapons stores and terrorist facilities.

This early report by i24 News: