MISSILE HORROR
Children among 11 dead in Israel-held Golan Heights as rocket hits football pitch hours after an IDF strike
Saturday's strike came hours after Israel struck another school in the Gaza Strip, reportedly killing 30 Palestinians
CHILDREN are among the 11 people who were killed in a rocket strike on a football pitch in Israel-occupied Golan Heights, a rescue official has said.
More than a dozen others were injured in the hit, which Israel has blamed on Iran-backed terror proxy group Hezbollah.
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Hezbollah, who operate out of southern Lebanon, have been exchanging tit-for-tat strikes with Israel for months.
The attack on Saturday evening came just hours after an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon reportedly killed three members of the militant group.
Hezbollah has admitted to hitting Golan Heights but said it struck a military base in retaliation for an Israeli attack on a Lebanese village.
Eli Bin, the head of a local Israeli rescue service, said the people hit in the football pitch strike are between 10 and 20 years old.
It was not clear exactly how old each of the individual victims are.
Chief spokesman for Hezbollah, Mohammed Afif, told The Associated Press that they categorically deny carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams.
But the Israeli military said in a statement today that their intelligence points to it being an attack by the militant group.
Saturday's strike came hours after Israel struck another school in the Gaza Strip.
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The IDF said they blasted the building in central Gaza because it was being used as a command centre for Hamas' terror operations.
According to Palestinian health officials, at least 30 people were killed and more than 100 left wounded.
Israel's ambulance service said over 13 people were injured in the rocket strike on Golan Heights this evening.
One medic, Idan Avshalom, told Sky News: "We witnessed great destruction when we arrived at the soccer field, as well as items that were on fire.
"There were casualties on the grass and the scene was gruesome."
Another, who asked not to be named, said: "It landed in the soccer pitch, all of them are children… many bodies and remains are in field we don't know who they are."
Beni Ben Muvchar, head of the local council in Majdal Shams, said "a red line was crossed" in the football field strike.
An Israeli military spokesman said following the attack: "We are preparing a response against Hezbollah".
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been in the US this week meeting with Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.
He was briefed on the Golan Heights attack on Saturday and is holding crunch security meetings with his military chiefs.
The security cabinet is set to meet at 4pm on Sunday to discuss the attack.
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group that supports Hamas, has launched renewed attacks against Israel since war broke out in October last year.
After Hamas stormed the Israeli border on October 7 and killed 1,200 people, the Israeli Defence Forces invaded Gaza to exterminate the terror group.
Following almost a year of bloody warfare in the decimated Strip, where some 35,000 people have died, a full-blown conflict between the two is looking increasingly likely.
Israel’s Defence Forces (IDF) have even been gearing up for a possible invasion by Hezbollah - and preparing to defend against one - for years.
The militant group is thought to have 30,000 to 50,000 fighters and between 120,000 and 200,000 missiles, rockets, attack and reconnaissance drones.
They operate mostly out of southern Lebanon.
Lebanon's government condemned "all acts of violence and attacks against all civilians," this evening.
It called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts" in a statement, according to national media.
Golan Heights is a few hours between the respective Israel and Lebanon borders.
Israel occupies two thirds of the Golan territory, historically part of Syria, and which sits at the southwest border of Syria.
Israel annexed the area in 1981 and Syria has always demanded that the territory be returned.
The IDF claimed on Saturday that since October 8 last year, Hezbollah has launched over 340 UAVs and 6,400 projectiles towards Israel.
Communities of innocent civilians on either side of the border have been hugely affected by exchanges of fire.
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The UN says Israeli attacks have forced more than 90,000 people in Lebanon from their homes with some 100 civilians killed, for 366 eliminated Hezbollah fighters.
Israel says around 60,000 of their civilians have been evacuated and 23 civilians have been killed - including 11 this evening in the attack they attribute to Hezbollah.
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