Israel Vows Hezbollah Will ‘Pay the Price’ for Soccer Field Attack Killing 12 Children

Israel has vowed that Hezbollah will “pay the price” after holding the Lebanese militant group responsible for a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children. This incident has reignited fears of a potential full-scale war in the region.

Hezbollah has “firmly denied” any involvement in the strike, which is the deadliest attack on Israel since the October 7 assaults.

In response, Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Hezbollah targets both deep inside Lebanese territory and along the border overnight Sunday. It remains unclear if there were any casualties from these strikes.

During a visit to Majdal Shams, the town near the Syrian and Lebanese borders where the rocket attack occurred, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised a severe retaliation. “Hezbollah is responsible for this and they will pay the price,” Gallant stated. He also emphasized in a previous statement, “We will hit the enemy hard.”

Saturday’s attack involved approximately 30 projectiles fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory, an assault quickly attributed by Israel’s military to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

All 12 victims of the strike were children playing on a soccer field, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local residents. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken supported Israel’s assessment, stating that “every indication” pointed to Hezbollah as the source of the rocket fire.

Around 20,000 Druze Arabs live in the Golan Heights, an area Israel captured from Syria in 1967 during the Six-Day War and annexed in 1981. This region is considered occupied territory under international law and UN Security Council resolutions and is also home to about 50,000 Israeli Jewish settlers. Most Druze residents identify as Syrian and have refused Israeli citizenship.

Hundreds of mourners gathered on Sunday for a funeral procession to honor the victims. Dressed in black, they sang and carried white coffins adorned with flower wreaths to a funeral home.

At the funeral, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid remarked, “The children who died on that football field could have been any of our children. Therefore, they are indeed the children of each of us. These are our children.”

Since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging rocket fire almost daily, with tensions escalating and raising fears of a broader Middle Eastern conflict.

While Hezbollah admitted to striking the Golan Heights on Saturday, it denied responsibility for the Majdal Shams attack. “We confirm that the Islamic Resistance has no connection to the incident whatsoever and firmly denies all false claims in this regard,” the group stated.

Israel’s initial overnight response stopped short of an all-out assault but heightened the region’s tension significantly.

On Sunday, Iran cautioned Israel against “any new adventures” targeting Lebanon. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani stated that Israel “does not have the minimum moral authority to comment and judge about the incident that happened in Majdal Shams area, and the claims of this regime against others will not be heard either.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short his visit to the United States to return to Israel because of the attack and convened a security cabinet meeting immediately upon his return. Netanyahu expressed his shock at the attack and declared, “The State of Israel will not be silent about this. We will not put this off the agenda.”