Eyewitness says bloody carnage on Majdal Shams soccer pitch was reminiscent of October 7; Druze leaders in Lebanon, Syria condemn attack but steer clear of mentioning Hezbollah
By TOI STAFF and AGENCIESToday, 5:06 am
Local residents comfort each other as they gather at the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in northern Israel, July 27, 2024.(Jalaa Marey/AFP)
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.”
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“I don’t know how to get over this… The situation is extremely difficult,” she added.
(Top row, L-R) Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh, 16, Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub, 12, Hazem Akram Abu Saleh, 15, Milad Muadad Alsha’ar, 10 (Middle row, L-R) Alma Ayman Fakher Eldin, 11, Naji Taher Alhalabi, 11, Johnny Wadeea Ibrahim, 13, Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh, 12 (Bottom row, L-R) Fajer Laith Abu Saleh, 16, Vinees Adham Alsafadi, 11 Nathem Fakher Saeb, 16, who were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on Majdal Shams on July 27, 2024
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.
Israeli rescue services and first responders are seen at the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack in the Druze village of Majdal Shams, July 27, 2024. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)
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.”
One witness, who was not identified by name, told Hebrew daily Haaretz that the scenes were reminiscent of October 7, when some 1,200 people were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel.
“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.”
Shortly after the attack, Mayor Dolan Abu Saleh appealed for residents to stay indoors “and allow search and rescue forces to do their jobs,” warning that the rocket fire could resume at any moment.
“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.
Youths walk next to a shelter damaged from shrapnel at a soccer field that was hit by a rocket, killing multiple children and teenagers, in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Golan Heights, Saturday, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
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.
‘Our blood is not cheap’
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.”