ISRAEL’S military has said it has hit Hezbollah targets in Lebanon after 12 children and teenagers were killed while playing football in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Hezbollah has been blamed for Saturday’s rocket strike in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, although it has denied involvement.
The attack came on the same day that Israel’s military struck a school near Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza, killing at least 30 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run ministry of health.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that a Hamas command and control centre was embedded inside the Khadija School and that it was using the compound as a hiding place to direct plan attacks and store weapons.
Gaza’s health ministry has said that footage showed victims were civilians and that most of them were children.
Following these events, the Israeli military has said it has carried out strikes against Hezbollah targets.
The Israeli military’s chief spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all the red lines here, and the response will reflect that.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s chief spokesperson Mohammed Afif said the group “categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams”.
Ha’il Mahmoud, a resident of Majdal Shams, told Channel 12 that children were playing football when the rocket hit the field.
He said a siren was heard seconds before the rocket hit, but there was no time to take shelter.
The White House National Security Council condemned the attack without directly blaming Hezbollah, adding that the US “will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority”.
The statement added: “Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian-backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Lebanon’s government in a statement, without mentioning Majdal Shams, urged “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned all attacks on civilians.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading fire since October 8, a day after Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel.
The violence comes as Israel and Hamas are weighing a ceasefire proposal that would free the roughly 110 hostages who remain captive in Gaza.
Israel's bombardment of Gaza has now killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities.
Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants.
On the Israeli side, 44 have been killed, at least 21 of them soldiers.
