Israeli security forces and medical personnel transport the wounded and local residents at the site of a reported Lebanese attack on Saturday in the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights region.
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TEL AVIV, ISRAEL AND GAZA – A rocket hit a stadium packed with children playing soccer in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Saturday afternoon, the same day an Israeli attack in Gaza destroyed a school building , resulting in dozens of deaths.
The airstrikes in central Gaza were the latest to destroy a school used to shelter displaced Palestinian residents on Saturday morning, killing 30 people and injuring more than 100 others.
The school is located in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, where many Palestinians fled after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for areas further south.
Within minutes of the attack, there was blood everywhere and fragments of flesh and blood could be seen on the stairs as disabled residents tried to flee, said Anas Baba, a reporter for National Public Radio who witnessed the attack.
Video shot by Baba showed the injured children being taken away in donkey carts and their bodies being lifted to high ground on makeshift stretchers built from debris. At a nearby hospital, Baba found the corridors lined with dead bodies, several of them apparently very young children.
Palestinians inspect the ruins of a school destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Saturday.
Abdul Karim Khana/Associated Press
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This is the latest strike at a school-turned-shelter in Gaza
About 4,000 people have taken refuge in the crowded school complex, and part of the target site is also being used as a field hospital, according to Gaza health authorities. No advance warning of the strike was given to internal staff.
The Israeli military said intelligence showed Hamas had been using the school compound as a hideout to attack Israeli forces. The Israeli military said it had taken numerous measures to “mitigate the risk of harm to civilians.”
Palestinians search for bodies in the rubble of a school destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza corridor, on Saturday.
Abdul Karim Khana/Associated Press
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The Israeli military has issued similar statements in recent weeks after several attacks on schools used to house displaced people in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel issued new evacuation orders in southern Gaza, including the neighborhoods of Khan Younis and Rafah, as the Israeli military said it was preparing to respond to Hamas rockets fired into Israel.
The United Nations currently estimates that more than 80% of Gaza’s residents, more than 2 million people, are under similar evacuation orders.
A deadly rocket fired from the Lebanese border
People stand next to damaged bicycles in the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights region on Saturday, where attacks were reported in Lebanon.
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Late Saturday, the Israeli ambulance service said a rocket fired from southern Lebanon killed 11 children and injured about 30 others, several seriously.
Israel said the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah fired about 40 rockets from southern Lebanon towards northern Israel on Saturday, most of which were intercepted and shot down.
The Israeli military said the rocket was fired from a village called Chebaa in southern Lebanon and blamed Hezbollah for the deaths. The group is designated a terrorist organization by the United States but denies responsibility.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari said it was the deadliest attack on Israeli targets since October 7, the Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the current Gaza war. war.
The incident prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington for a briefing, to return to Israel early from the United States. Upon his return, he will convene a cabinet meeting of senior political allies and security officials.
The rocket landed in the disputed city of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, which Israel claims after seizing it from Syria in the 1967 war.
Many local residents there belong to the Druze community, an Arab minority group, some of whom have been granted Israeli citizenship.
Attack near Lebanese border threatens to spark wider fires
Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office that the entire nation of Israel extends its welcome to the children’s families and “the entire Druze community” “in this difficult moment, which is also our difficult moment.” .
After months of skirmishes that have seen artillery fire, air strikes and rocket attacks along Israel’s border with Lebanon, many analysts and regional leaders have expressed concern about a military escalation between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.
The incident marked the highest number of civilian casualties so far since the conflict erupted in October.
Despite Hezbollah’s public statements categorically denying involvement and saying the group had “absolutely nothing to do with this incident,” Netanyahu warned in a statement from his office that “the State of Israel will not remain silent on this. We This will not be ignored.
The speaker of the Lebanese parliament said Hezbollah’s denial of involvement confirmed its commitment to avoid violence against civilians and proved that Lebanon was not responsible.
The Lebanese government said the targeting of civilians “violates international law” and condemned “all acts of violence and attacks against all civilians.”
William Marx wrote from London; Kat Lonsdorf reported from Tel Aviv; Anas Baba reported from Gaza.
