Druze Children "Shredded to Pieces"
No Time to Run to Shelter
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who cut short a visit to the US, visited the Druze town of Majdal Shams on Monday afternoon following a devastating attack. "These children are our children," he declared. "The state of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe."
Earlier that morning, an Israeli drone strike outside the Lebanese town of Shaqra, about 6.5km from the Israeli border, reportedly killed two Hezbollah fighters. Israel has not commented on the incident.
This attack has been the most severe to affect the Druze community, which has resided in the Golan Heights for centuries. After a lengthy meeting, Netanyahu’s office stated that the Cabinet has authorized him and the defense minister to determine the response to Hezbollah.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) identified the attack weapon as an Iranian-made Falaq rocket, designed to inflict civilian casualties. He condemned Hezbollah's use of such weaponry, emphasizing the intent to harm civilians and children.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has intensified since Hezbollah launched rockets at Israeli positions following Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on October 7, claiming support for the Palestinians.
‘Shredded to pieces’: Druze community grieves after Hezbollah strike kills 12 children
THEY HEARD SIRENS, RAN FOR SHELTER,' BUT THERE WAS NO TIME
By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES| The Times of Israel | 7-28-24 | Condensed
The residents of Majdal Shams in northern Israel said they expected a serious response to a Hezbollah rocket attack that killed at least 12 children and youths and injured more than 30 at a local soccer field on Saturday, leaving the residents of the Druze town heartbroken and in shock.
It was the single deadliest Hezbollah attack on northern Israel since fighting began on the Israel-Lebanon border on October 8, and the victims were all between 10 and 20 years old, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Saturday night.
Jihan Safadi, the principal of the Al-Manahel elementary school, which five of the children attended, told Arab news site Panet that she couldn’t comprehend the scale of the tragedy, and couldn’t express how it felt to lose several of her students and to have several more injured in one fell swoop.
“I had told my students before summer break to enjoy their time, to go out and play and have fun and to be safe,” she said.
“The situation here is very difficult. Parents are crying, people are screaming outside,” she told the Associated Press. “No one can digest what has happened…I don’t know how to get over this… The situation is extremely difficult,” she added.
Residents and first responders described scenes of bloody carnage on the field.
Although a warning siren had sounded, it was too short an alert and the victims were unable to flee in time. The children “were playing soccer, they heard sirens, they ran to shelter,” eyewitness Mourhaf Abu Saleh told Reuters. “It may take them like 15 seconds (to reach the shelter). But they couldn’t reach the shelter because the rocket hit the site between the [soccer] ground and the shelter.”
“The children were playing, they came to have fun and enjoy themselves,” the witness said. “I started picking up scattered body parts. Children whose bodies were flung (into the air). The explosion shredded them to pieces.”
“A dark day has befallen Majdal Shams,” he said. Druze leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif told Channel 12 that the community, which numbers close to 12,000 people, was in shock following the “terrible massacre.”
The Hezbollah strike was a “cruel and murderous terror attack that targeted innocent children who were playing soccer,” he said.
“This is the ongoing reality of the last nine months up north. This evening, all possible red and black lines were crossed,” he said, adding that Israel could not allow its citizens to keep getting hurt.
Druze former MK Ayoob Kara took to X to express his “horror at the awful massacre” on Saturday evening. “[Hezbollah] are hateful, bloodthirsty murderers without moral lines and motivated by blind hatred,” he wrote, adding a demand that the IDF enter Lebanon and Syria and “purify the terrorist areas” to restore safety for the residents of the north.
Despite being across enemy lines, several Druze officials and spiritual leaders in both Lebanon and Syria condemned the attacks on their Israeli coreligionists but avoided mention of Hezbollah.
Lebanese Druze politician Wiam Wahhab warned that Druze “blood is not cheap,” and called for an independent investigation into the Majdal Shams massacre “with the participation of the United Nations.”
Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Syria, similarly condemned the “heinous crime” in Majdal Shams, the Ynet news site reported, citing Syrian media outlets.
“We call on the international community to prosecute those who committed the crime,” he was quoted as saying. “The guilty must be punished according to international law for what they have done.”
My heart grieves with these families. We need to keep them in our prayers.
The adults failed those children. HELLO....they are at WAR. Stay inside or take a chance of ending
up DEAD. Why didn't the DOME protect them?