Majdal Shams attack | |
---|---|
Part of the Israel–Hezbollah conflict (2023–present) | |
Location | Majdal Shams, Israeli-occupied Golan Heights |
Coordinates | 33°15′58.4″N 35°46′05.9″E / 33.266222°N 35.768306°E |
Date | 27 July 2024 6:18 pm (UTC+02:00) |
Attack type | Rocket attack |
Deaths | 12 |
Injured | At least 42 |
Perpetrator | Hezbollah (according to Israel and the United States) |
The Majdal Shams attack, also called the Majdal Shams massacre by Israeli media,[1][2] took place on 27 July 2024, when a rocket hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.[a] The resulting blast killed 12 Syrian children belonging to the Druze community[4][5][6] and injured at least 42 others,[7][8] with most of the victims being between the ages of 10 and 16.[7][4]
Israel blamed Hezbollah for carrying out the attack with an Iranian-made Falaq-1 rocket equipped with a 53-kilogram warhead.[7][9] Hezbollah said it had targeted a nearby military base and that the football pitch was hit by an errant Israeli Iron Dome air defence projectile. Western sources dismissed this claim, citing expert opinion that the rocket had been fired by Hezbollah or another militant group in Lebanon.[9][10][11][4][12]
Local authorities denied that the children were Israeli,[4] and local residents protested the attendance of Israeli ministers at the funeral for reasons ranging from opposition to politicization of the tragedy to anger at the Israeli government's perceived neglect of their safety.[13][14][15][16][17]
The attack occurred amid the Israel–Hezbollah conflict that has been ongoing since 8 October 2023, a regular exchange of attacks that began following the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war.[18][19] Following the attack, Israel assassinated Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
Most Druze there identify as Syrian and have rejected offers of Israeli citizenship. The Regional Council of Majdal Shams said Sunday that none of the 12 children killed had Israeli citizenship.
a rocket attack over the weekend . . that killed a dozen Syrian children and young adults in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Netanyahu spoke to the media, condemning the attack that killed 'Israeli citizens,' referring to the deceased as 'our children.' But contrary to Netanyahu's attempt to portray the attack as an attack on Israel, he and Smotrich were met with indignation by hundreds of angry mourners who kicked the politicians out, calling them 'murderers' and other expletives on their way out. Across international mainstream media, the people of Majdal Shams have been referred to as everything from 'Druze Arabs,' to 'Druze Israelis,' and their town has been referenced both by the media and by Israeli politicians as just another 'Israeli' town. Similar to Netanyahu's reference to 'our children,' these titles and designations obscure the national identity of the Druze people who live in the occupied Golan Heights and their political reality. Saturday's killing of the 12 Syrian children in the Golan . . .
Omar Baddar, a Middle East political analyst, says he believes the rocket attack on the Golan Heights was "almost certainly an accident", regardless of who was responsible for it.
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