Israel’s air force says it has hit Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, after 12 children and young adults were killed in a rocket strike while playing football in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel has blamed the Lebanese militant group for Saturday’s strike on the Druze town of Majdal Shams, but Hezbollah has strongly denied any involvement.
Early on Sunday, the IDF said it had conducted air strikes against seven Hezbollah targets “deep inside Lebanese territory”. It is unclear whether there were any casualties.
The rising tensions have the potential to trigger an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, whose forces have regularly exchanged fire since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in October.
Saturday’s bloodshed at the town’s football pitch was the deadliest loss of life in and around Israel’s northern border since 7 October when Hamas attacked Israel.
Fighting with Hezbollah, which had previously been sporadic, escalated when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions the day after the Hamas attack, in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation against Hezbollah immediately after Saturday’s strike, saying the group would “pay a heavy price”.
Hours later, the Israeli Air Force said it had struck “terror targets” including “weapons caches and terrorist infrastructure” overnight.
A UN statement said “maximum restraint” was crucial by all parties, with the risk of a wider conflict that would “engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief”.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohamad Afif denied responsibility for the strike, and the BBC is trying to verify reports that the militant group told the United Nations that the explosion was caused by an Israeli interceptor rocket.
Israel’s foreign ministry released names and ages for 10 of those killed, saying they were children aged between 10 and 16. An eleventh person was named but no age given. The details of the twelfth casualty were not confirmed.
Verified video shows crowds of people on a football pitch and stretchers being rushed to waiting ambulances.
Majdal Shams is one of four villages in the Golan Heights, where about 25,000 members of the Arabic-speaking Druze religious and ethnic group live.
Before reports of the strike’s impact emerged, Hezbollah had claimed responsibility for four other attacks.
