“The rocket is Iranian” –

At least 12 children were killed in an attack yesterday on a soccer field in the Druze-majority town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied in 1967 and de facto annexed in 1981. This was reported by Israeli media. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attributed the attack to the pro-Iranian Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah. For its part, the Islamist group “categorically denied the accusations made by some enemy media and various media platforms regarding the target of Majdal Shams,” stressing that “the Islamic Resistance has nothing to do with the incident.” In response to the attack, Israeli fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon last night, including weapons depots and other infrastructure in Shabriha and Burj el Shemali, near Tyre, in the Beqaa Valley and in the areas of Kafr Kila, Rab al Thalathine, Khiam and Tayr Harfa.

According to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari, in a press conference, the rocket that hit Majdal Shams was an Iranian-made Falaq-1. “It is an Iranian rocket, produced in Iran, with a warhead of over 50 kilograms of explosives,” Hagari said, stressing that the “Falaq-1 is used only by the Hezbollah terrorist group, which carried out this attack from Chebaa,” a municipality located in the Hasbaya district of Nabatiye governorate in southern Lebanon. For his part, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said that the attack was directed by Ali Muhammad Yahya, identified as the commander of a Hezbollah rocket launch site in the Chebaa area. Yesterday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for launching dozens of Katyusha rockets and a single Falaq-1 rocket against “Israeli artillery positions” in the Golan Heights. Following the news of the attack on Madjal Shams, the Lebanese group denied any responsibility. Several sources cited by the French-language Lebanese daily L’Orient le Jour raised the possibility that an Israeli interceptor missile missed its target and crashed into the predominantly Druze town.

Following the news of the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved up his flight back to Israel from the United States, where he addressed Congress over the past week and met with US President Joe Biden and Vice President and candidate for the next elections, Kamala Harris, in Washington, and with former President and candidate Donald Trump in Florida. In Israel, meanwhile, politicians from all sides have expressed their outrage at the attack on Madjal Shams and criticized the Netanyahu government’s failure to ensure security in the north of the country, where almost daily clashes between the IDF and Lebanese militants have occurred since October 8, 2023.