At least twelve people, most of them young, were killed and tens injured in a rocket attack from Lebanon against the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to the Israeli military.
Israel points out Iran-backed Hezbollah as responsible.
Hezbollah will pay dearly and in a way that has not been seen before, said Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call with the leader of the Druze minority in Israel. The area where the attack took place is inhabited by Druze.
The USA, the UN, and the EU condemn the attack, while fears are expressed that a full-scale war may break out between Israel and Hezbollah.
This is the deadliest attack against Israeli targets since the fighting with the Lebanon-based militia group Hezbollah broke out in the area along Israel's northern border.
Hezbollah denies
Israel points out the group as responsible for the attack against the Israeli-annexed area of the Golan Heights. The rocket hit a football field in Majdal Shams, which still has a predominantly Arab population after the area was conquered by Israel from Syria in the Six-Day War in 1967.
"The terrorist organization Hezbollah is behind the rocket attack against a football field in the town of Majdal Shams earlier this evening, where many civilians, including children, died," says the Israeli military leadership (IDF) in a statement on Saturday evening.
Hezbollah, however, denies involvement but says that it has carried out other attacks against Israeli military targets in response to Israeli air strikes that killed Hezbollah members. Earlier in the day, the group claimed to have fired a projectile of the type Falaq-1 against Israeli targets.
Many young people killed
A spokesman for the Israeli military, Daniel Hagari, claims that it was such a projectile that hit the football field.
Many of the dead and injured in the attack on Majdal Shams are between 10 and 20 years old, according to Israeli authorities. In addition to the dead, twice as many are reported to have been injured, several of them seriously.
Israel and the militia group Hezbollah have almost daily exchanged fire since the Gaza War began as a result of a terrorist-stamped Hamas attack against Israel in October last year.
