Ten individuals, together with youngsters, had been killed in a rocket assault on a soccer area within the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday, Israeli information channel N12 reported, the worst incident in months of violence between Israel and armed teams in Lebanon.
The Israeli army mentioned the rocket was fired by the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The group, which is backed by Iran, denied any involvement within the assault, which is prone to provoke a fierce response from Israel.
The Israeli emergency service earlier reported that 9 individuals had been severely injured when a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a soccer area within the Druze village of Majdal Shams. A health care provider described intensive destruction and fireplace on the website.
“Once we arrived on the soccer area, we noticed quite a lot of destruction and burning objects. There have been victims on the grass and the scene was horrific,” mentioned Idan Avshalom, a health care provider at Magen David Adom.
“He fell on the soccer pitch, they’re all youngsters… there are a lot of our bodies and stays on the pitch, we do not know who they’re,” a witness who requested to not be named informed Reuters.
The assault on the soccer area got here after an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed 4 militants on Saturday. Two Lebanese safety sources mentioned the 4 fighters killed within the Israeli assault in Kfarkila, southern Lebanon, had been members of various armed teams, with a minimum of certainly one of them belonging to Hezbollah.
The Israeli army mentioned its plane had struck a army construction belonging to Hezbollah after figuring out a militant cell getting into the constructing.
Not less than 30 rockets had been fired from Lebanon throughout the border, the army mentioned.
“In line with an evaluation of the IDF scenario and knowledge in our possession, the rocket launch towards Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist group,” the army mentioned.
Hezbollah claimed duty for a minimum of 4 assaults, a few of them involving Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Kfarkila assaults. Nevertheless, Hezbollah’s senior media consultant, Mohammad Afif, denied duty for the Majdal Shams assault.
In a written assertion, the group mentioned that “the Islamic Resistance has completely nothing to do with the incident and categorically denies all false accusations relating to it.”
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fireplace since October, after Hamas’s assault on southern Israel sparked the Gaza battle, its worst escalation since 2006.