Community leaders visited on Sunday the site where a rocket landed following an attack on Saturday in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights village Majdal Hams, killing 12 children and teenagers. Majdal Hams resident, Haitham, stood near the deserted pitch and spoke to Reuters about the incident saying it was a "difficult day".
Israeli authorities blamed Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah for the rocket attack.
"We are in the area of the crime that happened yesterday in the village where we lost 12 of our dear ones. Today is a difficult day and a very heavy loss, it’s chilling. What I can say is this is a human tragedy that crosses every sector and religion. We don't want to talk about Druze and non-Druze, I just want to hug the families who lost their loved ones and say: Enough to cheap politics, enough with soothing words – ‘We will respond with full force’, ‘We will get back at them’ – what we need to do is respond with full force, to release the hostages and stop this war. Enough of sacrificing our children’s blood. Enough," said the local resident.
VIDEO: "Enough to cheap politics, enough with soothing words"
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. Haitham called for an end to the fighting of which this round what sparked after the conflict began in Gaza following the Hamas October 7 attack in southern Israel The Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were part of Syria until 1967, when Israel captured most of the area in the Middle East war, annexing it in 1981.
READ: 'Hezbollah will pay heavy price, kind it has thus far not paid': Israel after football match attack
That unilateral annexation was not recognised by most countries, and Syria demands the return of the territory. More than 40,000 people live on the Israeli-occupied Golan, more than half of them Druze residents. The Druze are an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam.
"We are not more precious than children who are killed anywhere else in the country or than innocent (killed) in southern Lebanon, or than innocent children killed in Gaza. Our children are not more precious than them. We are human beings, we live our lives in peace and tranquillity. Our wish is that… every mother who lost their dearest yesterday was supposed to be able to celebrate their birthday just like Sara Netanyahu who celebrated with her son. We need to strive now to sign a deal and stop this dammed war. We want to live, we don’t want to die," he added.
"Horrible"
“I feel darkness inside and out. Nothing like this happened here,” Anan Abu Saleh, a Majdal Shams resident, said from the soccer field on Saturday night. “There’s no way to explain this. I saw children, I don’t want to say what I saw, but its horrible, really horrible. We need more security.”
The attack on the soccer pitch followed an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed four militants on Saturday (July 27). Two security sources in Lebanon said the four fighters killed in the Israeli strike on Kfarkila in southern Lebanon were members of different armed groups, with at least one of them belonging to Hezbollah. Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the strike, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
(With inputs from agency)
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