A rocket attack on a football ground in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights killed 12 people including children on Saturday, Israeli authorities said, blaming Lebanon’s Hezbollah and vowing to inflict a heavy price on the group.
The rocket struck a football pitch in the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
"Hezbollah will pay a heavy price, the kind it has thus far not paid," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone call with the leader of the Druze community in Israel, according to a statement from his office.
Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the strike. In a written statement, it said: "The Islamic Resistance has absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard.”
Hezbollah had earlier announced several rocket attacks targeting Israeli military positions.
The Israeli ambulance service said 13 more people were wounded by the rocket that hit the soccer pitch which was filled at the time with children and teenagers.
Netanyahu, already due to head back from the United States to Israel overnight on Saturday, said he would bring his flight forward and convene his security cabinet upon arrival.
The United States, which has been leading diplomatic efforts aimed at de-escalating the conflict across the Lebanese-Israeli border, condemned it as a horrific attack and said US support for Israel's security was "iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah.”
The United States "will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority," the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a statement. The Blue Line refers to the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
Moscow, which has ties with most of the key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, condemned the attacks in the Golan Heights.
"We condemn all terrorist actions undertaken by any entity," Russian TASS state news agency cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Sunday.
The Israeli military said the rocket launch was carried out from an area located north of the village of Shebaa in southern Lebanon.
Speaking with reporters at Majdal Shams, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that forensics showed the rocket was an Iranian-made Falaq-1.
Hezbollah had earlier announced firing a Falaq-1 missile on Saturday, saying it had targeted an Israeli military headquarters.
