Thousands of mourners gathered for the funerals of ‘at least 12’ children killed by a Hezbollah rocket attack on a football field on the Israel-controlled Golan Heights.
The Israeli military said they were struck on Saturday by an Iranian-made rocket that Lebanon’s Hezbollah group fired at a football field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams.
Local authorities said that 12 children aged between 10 and 16 years were killed in the attack, with several more in critical condition as 20 were wounded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that Hezbollah ‘will pay a heavy price, one that it has not paid so far’, according to his office, while IDF chief Herzi Halevi said the attack ‘will result in a very, very significant reaction’.
Hezbollah chief spokesman Mohammed Afif said that the group ‘categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams’ – an outright denial of an attack that is unusual for the group.
Footage from the funeral processions today showed weeping men carrying small coffins through the crowded narrow streets of the town, which came to a standstill as residents were mourning the children.
The Druze follow an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Hundreds of men dressed in traditional attire, including white caps topped with red, attended the ceremonies, while others lined balconies to look down on the procession of white-covered caskets with white roses and gypsophila resting on top.
Under a scorching sun, some mourners carried large photos of the dead children, including one boy wearing a suit.
Earlier, several women dressed in black abaya robes cried as they laid flowers on the caskets, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene.
Our community is very close-knit. These children are like children of everybody in the village,’ he said.
Checkpoints have been set up at the entrance to every village in the Golan.
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