‘Massive tragedy’: Children killed in Hezbollah rocket attack on soccer field are named
Northern council head says at least 5 victims from same family; hospitals say several children still in serious condition; Foreign Ministry: Hezbollah ‘crossed all lines’
Eleven of the 12 children killed in Saturday’s deadly Hezbollah rocket attack on Majdal Shams were named by Arabic and Hebrew media on Sunday morning, as northern community representatives railed against the government for what they described as a lackluster response to daily missile fire.
The victims were named as Alma Ayman Fakher Eldin, 11 Milad Muadad Alsha’ar, 10; Vinees Adham Alsafadi, 11; Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub, 12; Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh, 12; Johnny Wadeea Ibrahim, 13; Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh, 16; Naji Taher Alhalabi, 11; Fajer Laith Abu Saleh, 16; Hazem Akram Abu Saleh, 15; and Nathem Fakher Saeb, 16.
The twelfth victim was named Sunday evening as 11-year-old Gevara Ebraheem.
The twelve children and teens were killed when a rocket hit a soccer field in the northern Druze town Saturday afternoon. The IDF has said that the rocket was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 with a warhead of over 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the deadly attack, but the IDF and US intelligence have stated that the terror group fired the deadly projectile.
The funerals of most of the children killed were set to begin at 11 a.m. in Majdal Shams.
Benny Ben-Muvhar, head of the Mevo’ot Hermon Regional Council, told Channel 12 news that four or five of the children killed were members of a single family.
“Ten months we are waiting for the security cabinet to tell us where to turn. We are sitting with army officials and saying: ‘We are ready, we are strong, we are waiting for instructions from the security cabinet.’ And what happens in the meantime? A mother and son are killed in Kfar Yuval, people killed in the communities,” he said.
He called the latest attack a “disaster” and demanded a change in the military’s responses.
Residents and first responders described scenes of bloody carnage on the soccer field. Though a warning siren had sounded, it was too short an alert for the victims, who were unable to flee in time.
It was the single deadliest Hezbollah attack since the terror group began striking northern Israel on October 8. To date, 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 381 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.
‘A difficult evening and night’
A number of children injured in the attack remained in serious condition in pediatric intensive care units in the north, many with permanent injuries, hospitals said Sunday morning
Prof. Salman Zarka, director of Ziv Medical Center in Safed, said 30 injured arrived in the immediate aftermath of the attack, of whom 15 are still hospitalized.
He told Channel 12 news that three of them are in serious condition. A number are expected to undergo additional surgeries throughout the day.
“Sadly, we are used to mass casualty events, but it’s children. It’s a massive tragedy for the area,” he said.
Prof. Danny Eitan, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, said there are three children in serious condition in the pediatric intensive care unit who underwent surgery overnight.
“A difficult evening and night. Five injured arrived at Rambam, of whom four were taken to surgery and then transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit,” he told Channel 12.
“Most of the injured arrived with multi-system injuries from shrapnel,” he said. “At the moment, three people are still in serious condition, sedated and ventilated in the pediatric intensive care unit.”
“They underwent surgery for a large part of the night. They have multi-system injuries, to their heads and bodies. In the coming days, we will focus on stabilizing them. We hope for a speedy recovery,” he said.
“It’s been a long time since we saw a group of children who were affected by such severe trauma,” he said.
Meanwhile, searches were underway for a child who has been missing since the attack. Relatives of 11-year-old Guevara Ibrahim have searched all the hospitals and surrounding areas, but the child has not been located, the Ynet news site reported. It is believed the child was at the soccer field when the rocket struck.
The Foreign Ministry said Sunday that Hezbollah had “crossed all red lines” with the attack.
“This is not an army fighting another army, rather it is a terrorist organization deliberately shooting at civilians,” the ministry said in a statement.
Visiting the scene of the attack Sunday morning, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed that Hezbollah would “pay the price,” and that the entire country stood in solidarity with Majdal Shams.
“I ask to convey to the families in my name and in the name of the entire security establishment our sympathy over this very grave incident — a terrible tragedy. Innocent boys and girls, it just hurts. Hezbollah is responsible for this and they will pay the price,” he said.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the military is increasing its readiness for “the next stage in the fighting in the north,” following the attack.
“We know exactly where the rocket was launched from. We examined here on the wall of the soccer field the remains of the rocket, and we are able to say that it is a Falaq rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead. This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever fires such a rocket into an urban area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children,” Halevi said in a video statement from the scene.
“We are greatly increasing our readiness for the next stage of fighting in the north, as we are simultaneously fighting in Gaza. We are able to attack even very far from the State of Israel. There will be more challenges. We will raise our readiness,” he said.
“When required, we will act strongly. Our duty is to return the residents of the north safely to their homes, in the entire north, the Galilee and the Golan Heights… it is a difficult day — we will work for better days,” Halevi added.
Rafik Halabi, mayor of the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel, said that if ministers had any “shame,” they would immediately abolish the controversial Nation State Law, passed in 2018. The law defined Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people” and says “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”
Critics, both at home and abroad, say it undermines Israel’s commitment to equality for all its citizens. Israel’s Druze minority, whose members — many of whom serve in the Israeli army — feel particularly excluded by the bill, says the law’s provisions render them second-class citizens.
‘An image that will remain with my soul for a lifetime’
A witness to the deadly rocket attack said that it went beyond the normal understanding of what constitutes a tragedy.
“We are taking 12 children to the cemetery in one day,” Zolan Abu Salah told Army Radio. “There is sadness, there is disaster, there is tragedy — and there is what happened to us yesterday.”
Fahid Safadi, a Masada Regional Council member, said he was at a supermarket 150 meters away from the court when the rocket hit.
“I heard the explosion, everything shook. I stepped outside the supermarket where I was and saw in front of me the horrors. Screaming, crying, people running. An image that will remain with my soul for a lifetime. I don’t expect Israel to react strongly — this is neither Jewish blood nor the blood of the residents of Tel Aviv, ” he told the Walla news site.
Northern residents have grumbled that after a single deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv, the IDF struck the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida, while largely avoiding striking civilian infrastructure in Lebanon after nearly ten months of daily attacks.
Safadi slammed the prime minister for taking a trip to the United States “while his people are being killed” and decried what he viewed as a lack of leadership in the country.
“If this was a Zionist government, this would not have happened. This is a post-Zionist government. If this happened in the US, how would [President Joe] Biden react tonight?” he asked.
AFP contributed to this report.
