Images have been released showing the horrific scene at a football pitch hit by a Majdal Shams rocket in Israel’s northern Golan Heights, where 12 children and young people were killed over the weekend.
The attack left a crater about two meters wide and damaged a carpet of artificial grass on which the victims, aged between ten and 16, were standing. Israel accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah of deliberately targeting civilians, while the Lebanese militant group quickly denied any responsibility for the attack.
Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevy said the attack, which hit a town of more than 11,000 residents, used an Iranian-made Falak missile with a 53-kilogram warhead belonging to Hezbollah. The military believes the flight time may have been too short. He said the missile was fired from the northern Lebanese town of Shebaa, about 10 kilometers from Majdal Shams. Hezbollah has experimented with launching missiles at shorter ranges.
Israel launched a retaliatory attack on a residential area in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Tuesday to target an Islamic group commander, killing three people and wounding 85.