Funerals held for victims of rocket strike in Golan Heights as world leaders strive to prevent escalation

Thousands of people gathered on Sunday for the funerals of children and young people killed in a rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as world leaders scrambled to contain the attack’s political fallout.

Members of the Druze community wept as they carried caskets through the streets of Majdal Shams, while some yelled in anger at government ministers who attended the funeral, Israeli media reported.

Israel blamed Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah for the strike, which killed 12. Hezbollah strongly denied carrying it out.

On Sunday, global leaders condemned the attack and moved to de-escalate tensions amid fears that the incident could spark a war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In response to Saturday’s strike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) hit Hezbollah targets in Lebanese territory overnight, and Hezbollah struck two Israeli military bases on Sunday.

Cross-border fire between the two sides has escalated since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, triggering Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Saturday’s attack was the deadliest loss of life in and around Israel’s northern border since October.

The strike hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams, one of four towns in the Golan Heights where about 25,000 members of the Arabic-speaking Druze religious and ethnic group live.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said 10 of the 12 victims were between the ages of 10 and 16, and has not released the ages of the other two victims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed that Hezbollah would “pay a heavy price”, arrived in Israel on Sunday after cutting short his trip to the US. He planned to hold a meeting with his military chiefs to assess the situation and approve operational plans.

Hezbollah denied it had anything to do with the strike, but had earlier on Saturday claimed responsibility for four other attacks, including one on a military base around 3km (2 miles) away.

At a funeral in Majdal Shams on Sunday, weeping men wearing traditional red-topped white hats carried 10 of the white-covered caskets through packed streets, AFP reported. Women dressed in black abaya robes cried as they laid flowers on the caskets. Some mourners carried large photos of the dead children.

Fadi Mahmud, 48, told AFP that it was the first time Majdal Shams had experienced such a loss during the war.

“Our community is very close-knit. These children are like children of everybody in the village,” he was reported as saying.