Eleven killed in missile attack on Israeli-occupied Golan

By Nathan Morley

Eleven people were killed and at least 34 others injured on Saturday when a rocket from Lebanon hit a town in the Golan Heights.

Eleven people, including children, were killed in the rocket attack which struck a football pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Israeli media said that the rocket was fired from Lebanon by Hezbollah, while Hezbollah said it ‘absolutely nothing’ to do with the incident.

However, the Israel Defense Forces insisted their intelligence suggests the attack was was carried out by Hezbollah.

Earlier, four Hezbollah operatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila. 

In response, before dawn on Sunday, the IDF conducted air strikes against seven Hezbollah targets inside Lebanese territory. 

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have intensified since last year, following a volley of rockets launched by Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October. Israel hit back with heavy artillery fire into Lebanon.

In Gaza, at least 30 Palestinians were killed, and 100 others hurt by Israeli bombing on a field hospital in Deir al-Balah.

The Israeli army said that based on intelligence, the air force jets struck ‘terrorists’ operating in a Hamas command center inside the Khadija School complex in central Gaza.

Elsewhere, UNICEF has been highlighting the plight of children in the West Bank. The organization said total of 143 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October last year.

This figure represents a rise of nearly 250 per cent compared to the preceding nine months, during which 41 Palestinian children were killed. UNICEF says two Israeli children have been killed in the West Bank in conflict-related violence during the same period.

Additionally, more than 440 Palestinian children have been injured with live ammunition.

The figures raise considerable alarm around excessive use of force against the most exposed.