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By Adeola Adeosun and Tom O'Connor
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Hezbollah has denied involvement in an apparent rocket strike that Israeli emergency services say killed 12 people, including children, at a soccer field in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights.
The attack, which comes amid worsening Israel-Lebanon border violence in the midst of war raging between Israeli forces and the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, was first reported Saturday by local media. It was later confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has said those killed were between the ages of 10 and 20 years old, and that 20 more were injured.
In a statement shared with Newsweek by the IDF, spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari called it "the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since October 7th," when a Hamas-led attack on Israel killed around 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, according to Israeli officials. The Palestinian Health Ministry in Hamas-led Gaza has estimated that more than 39,200 people have been killed in the ensuing war in Gaza, though it did not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants.
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Following what the IDF called a "situational assessment and the intelligence in our possession," the Israeli military stated that "the rocket launch toward Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization."
The group, however, denied any role in the attack.
"The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon categorically denies allegations made by some 'Israeli' media outlets and various media platforms about its involvement in targeting Majdal Shams," a Hezbollah spokesperson said in a statement shared with Newsweek. "The Islamic Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the incident and denies all false allegations in this regard."
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But Hagari rejected the group's denial, calling it "a lie" and asserting that the IDF had identified Hezbollah as the perpetrator.
The incident occurred amidst a series of retaliatory attacks following an earlier Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon that the IDF said killed four militants. The IDF stated that their aircraft had targeted a Hezbollah military structure in Kfarkila after identifying militants entering the building.
Eyewitnesses described a scene of chaos and destruction at the football pitch. The Magen David Adom Emergency Service has reported that paramedics treated critically injured individuals, aged 10 to 20, with some transferred to local clinics. Evacuation helicopters, ambulances, and intensive care units were dispatched to the scene to assist with the emergency response.
Israeli authorities have instructed residents in the northern Golan and Upper Galilee to stay close to protected areas, highlighting the ongoing security concerns in the region. The Golan Heights has been under Israeli control since it was seized from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and was later annexed in 1981 without international recognition.
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The conflicting claims and denials of the latest attack highlight the complex and volatile nature of the ongoing conflict along the Israel-Lebanon border. Since October, when Hamas' attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war, Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in their worst escalation since they went to war in 2006.
Saturday's events unfolded against a backdrop of increasing violence. According to Israeli sources, Hezbollah launched multiple rockets toward communities in the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights. The organization claimed these attacks were in response to the killing of militants in southern Lebanon earlier in the day.
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