A rocket attack Saturday on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights killed at least 12 children and teens, and wounded several others, Israel said, hours after an Israeli airstrike on south Lebanon killed three members of the militant Hezbollah group.
The strike, the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the fighting between the two foes erupted on Oct. 7, raised fears of a broader conflagration in the region.
Hezbollah chief spokesman Mohammed Afif told The Associated Press that the group “categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams.” It is unusual for Hezbollah to deny an attack.
However, a U.S. official told CBS News Saturday night that “there’s no real doubt here this was Hezbollah.”
And Israel’s military chief spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari also asserted to journalists that “Hezbollah is lying.”
Speaking later from the site of the attack, Hagari said that “the rocket fired by Hezbollah was a Falaq-1 Iranian rocket, carrying a 50 kilogram warhead. This is a model that is owned exclusively by Hezbollah, and tonight it caused the deaths of 12 young boys and girls.”
Hagari earlier said that about 20 others were wounded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah “will pay a heavy price for this attack, one that it has not paid so far.”
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Cutting his nearly week-long trip to the U.S. short, Netanyahu departed Washington, D.C., Saturday night en route to Israel, an Israeli official told CBS News.
And early Sunday morning, Israeli Defense Forces reported that overnight, the Israeli Air Force retaliated with airstrikes on a series of Hezbollah targets both deep inside Lebanese territory and in southern Lebanon, including weapons caches and terrorist infrastructure. The IDF released aerial video of the airstrikes.
Saturday was a day of “almost all-out war” between Israel and Hezbollah following the rocket attack that killed children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel a U.S. official confirmed to CBS News. Officials said the strike was a “nightmare scenario” feared by Biden administration officials — and mass casualties would force a heavier Israeli response than the usual tit-for-tat.
White House officials were working the phones to de-escalate and contain the fallout.
“We condemn this horrific attack that reportedly killed a number of teenagers and children playing soccer on a Saturday evening in the village of Majdal Shams in northern Israel,” a spokesperson for the National Security Council said. “…Israel continues to face severe threats to its security, as the world saw today, and the United States will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority. Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”
The Israeli military said in a statement Saturday that according to intelligence in its possession, “the rocket launch toward Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.”
The Israeli military said one projectile was identified crossing from Lebanon toward the area. Channel 12 aired footage of a large blast in one of the town’s valleys.
The strike at the soccer field, just before sunset, followed earlier cross-border violence on Saturday, when Hezbollah said three of its fighters were killed, without specifying where. Israel’s military said its air force targeted a Hezbollah arms depot in the border village of Kfar Kila, adding that militants were inside at the time.
“There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all the red lines here, and the response will reflect that,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israeli Channel 12. “We are nearing the moment in which we face an all-out war.”
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“These were kids at a soccer field,” Beni Ben Muvchar, head of the local council, told Israeli Channel 12. “Today a red line was crossed,” he said, urging Israeli leaders to start targeting top Hezbollah commanders.
Hezbollah said its fighters carried out 10 different attacks using rockets and explosive drones against Israeli military posts, the last of which targeted the army command of the Haramoun Brigade in Maaleh Golani with Katyusha rockets. In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it hit the same army post with a short-range Falaq rocket. It said the attacks were in response to Israeli airstrikes on villages in southern Lebanon.
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Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed them in 1981.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded near daily fire since the war in Gaza started after Hamas’ surprise attack on Oct. 7 killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel launched an offensive that has so far killed more than 39,000 people, according to local health authorities, displaced over 80% of the territory’s people and triggered a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.
CBS News has learned the latest round of in-person hostage talks are set to take place Sunday in Rome, Italy, with CIA Director William Burns traveling to the Italian capital to meet Mossad Director David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, in an attempt to finalize a deal.
The talks come as U.S. officials claimed to have dialed up the pressure on Netanyahu during his White House meetings this week to close on a cease-fire deal.
Over the past weeks, the exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel intensified with Israeli airstrikes and rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah striking deeper and further away from the border.
Since early October, Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed more than 450 people, mostly Hezbollah members, but also around 90 civilians and non-combatants. On the Israeli side, 21 soldiers and 13 civilians had been killed before Saturday.
— Margaret Brennan and Olivia Gazis contributed to this report.
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