Funeral held for 12th child killed in Hezbollah rocket strike on Golan soccer field

The 12th child killed in a Hezbollah rocket strike on a soccer field in Majdal Shams was laid to rest Monday in the Druze town, a day after the other victims’ funerals.

Hundreds of mourners attended the ceremony for 11-year-old Gevara Ebraheem. A relative said that the tragedy had “shaken our hearts.”

According to the Haaretz daily, the child posted on his Facebook page on October 15, days after the start of the war, that “we don’t want war, we want to live in peace.”

Ebraheem is survived by his parents and younger brother.

The boy had been considered missing for some 24 hours following the Saturday afternoon strike in northern Israel that killed 11 other children, all of whom had been on a soccer field when the Iranian-made rocket impacted, killing them before they could make it to safety.

Police said on Sunday evening that new findings at the scene of the strike had confirmed that Ebraheem was also killed, putting an end to his family’s hope that he had fled the scene of the strike and survived.

Gevara Ebraheem, 11, killed in a rocket strike from Lebanon on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on July 27 2024. (Courtesy)

Ein Qiniyye Regional Council head Wael Mugrabi, a relative of Ebraheem’s, told Channel 12 that the boy had “just disappeared.” The family had initially been told the child was taken to Ziv Medical Center in Safed, but the information turned out to be incorrect, he said.

The mystery surrounding his whereabouts was compounded by the fact that cameras on the soccer field that might have provided clues were destroyed in the blast. Some surmised that his small body may have been obliterated by the explosion, making identification difficult.

“The missile probably hit him directly,” a local council member told Ynet. “The soccer instructor said that he was definitely with the entire group of children who were hit.”

Elders and mourners pray by the coffin of Gevara Ebraheem, 11, killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams on July 29, 2024 (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)

Funerals were held Sunday for the other 11 victims, 10 of them in Majdal Shams, on the southern slope of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights, and one in nearby Ein Qiniyye, amid a mix of grief and anger in the devastated Druze community.

Black flags flew on the lampposts of Majdal Shams and the surrounding Druze villages of Buq’ata and Masa’ada, and all local businesses were shuttered on Sunday during the funerals. Thousands of locals and visitors from beyond the Golan, most wearing black, filled the town center as the victims’ white coffins were led through.

At a security cabinet meeting Sunday night, ministers authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to decide on the scale and timing of Israel’s response to the attack.

(Top row, L-R) Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh, 16, Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub, 12, Hazem Akram Abu Saleh, 15, Milad Muadad Alsha’ar, 10 (Middle row, L-R) Alma Ayman Fakher Eldin, 11, Naji Taher Alhalabi, 11, Johnny Wadeea Ibrahim, 13, Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh, 12 (Bottom row, L-R) Fajer Laith Abu Saleh, 16, Vinees Adham Alsafadi, 11 Nathem Fakher Saeb, 16, and Gevara Ebraheem, 11, who were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on Majdal Shams on July 27, 2024.

On Monday, Gallant paid a second visit to Majdal Shams since the attack, where he told the bereaved families that Hezbollah would pay the price for the attack.

“To me, there’s no difference between a Jewish child who was murdered in the south of Israel on October 7 and a Druze child who was murdered in the Golan Heights. It’s the same thing, these are our children,” Gallant told the mourners.

“We will do everything to restore security and let life continue as it should. Hezbollah will pay a price for this – our actions will speak volumes,” he added.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallants (left) visits bereaved families in the northern Druze village of Majdal Shams after 12 children were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on the weekend, July 29, 2024. (Elad Malcha/Defense Ministry)

Hezbollah said on Saturday that it had launched a Falaq rocket at an IDF base near Majdal Shams, though once reports emerged of civilian casualties in the northern town, the terror group changed course and denied its involvement.

With Israel threatening a harsh reprisal attack and tensions already high following nearly 10 months of almost daily rocket attacks on northern Israel, many in Lebanon were bracing for Israel’s response, amid fears that a Hezbollah retaliation could send the region spiraling toward all-out war.

So far, the skirmishes have resulted in 24 civilian deaths on the Israeli side, as well as the deaths of 18 IDF soldiers and reservists. There have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 382 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. In Lebanon, another 68 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have been killed.