ISRAEL’S EMERGENCY MEDICAL service has said at least 10 people were killed by rocket strikes in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights in Syria today, with the Israeli military blaming the attack on Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, who have denied responsibility. 

The 10 were killed when a rocket hit a football pitch in the Arab town of Majdal Shams, where many residents retain Syrian nationality decades after the territory’s occupation in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, emergency service Magen David Adom said.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that those killed were all aged between 10 and 20 years old. 

The rocket fire came after an Israeli strike killed four Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon prompting the Iran-backed militant group to announce a flurry of retaliatory rocket attacks against the Golan and northern Israel.

Magen David Adom reported 10 dead and 19 wounded after the rocket hit on the town of Majdal Shams.

“The Hezbollah terrorist organization is behind the rocket launch at a soccer field in Majdal Shams,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

But the Iran-backed militant group denied it was responsible.

“The Islamic Resistance has no connection to this incident,” it said, referring to its military wing.

“We will prepare for a response against Hezbollah… we will act,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters, adding Saturday’s rocket fire was the “deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since 7 October ” when Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups attacked southern Israel, sparking the retaliatory war on Gaza.

The Lebanese government has condemned “all acts of violence and aggression against civilians” following the attack. 

“Targeting civilians is a flagrant violation of international law and goes against the principles of humanity,” a government statement said, calling “for an immediate cessation of hostilities”. 

Israeli police and the army said rockets had struck multiple locations in the Golan, including Majdal Shams.

Ambulances, helicopters and mobile intensive care units were deployed to the site, the army said.

“We arrived at a football pitch and saw destruction and objects on fire. Injured people were lying on the grass,” paramedic Idan Avshalom said in a statement issued by Magen David Adom.

An AFP correspondent saw medics carrying away the wounded for treatment.

“Officers and police bomb disposal experts from the northern district police are currently securing the area and searching for additional (rocket) remnants to eliminate any further risk to the public,” the police said in a separate statement.

The rocket fire came after a Lebanese security source said an Israeli strike killed four Hezbollah fighters in the southern village of Kfar Kila.

Hezbollah, which has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since it invaded the Palestinian territory of Gaza last October, confirmed the deaths of four of its fighters.

It said it carried out a dozen retaliatory attacks on Israeli targets, nine in the space of two hours.

 - © AFP 2024