Netanyahu Visits Golan Rocket Fire Site, Vows “Severe Response”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Monday visited the site of a deadly attack in the annexed Golan Heights, vowed Israel would deliver a “severe response” to the rocket fire that killed 12 children.

“Like all Israeli citizens, and I must say like many around the world, we were deeply shaken by this horrific killing,” Netanyahu said at the site of the attack, according to a statement issued by his office.

“These children are our children … The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe.”

Scores of residents of Majdal Shams protested at Netanyahu’s visit which came after the last of the victim was buried on Monday, with hundreds of Druze men and women gathering for the funeral, an AFP journalist reported.

Many residents of Majdal Shams have not accepted Israeli nationality since Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967.

The 12 children aged between 10 and 16 were killed on Saturday when a rocket fired from Lebanon struck a football pitch in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams where they were playing.

According to the Israeli military, they were hit by an Iranian-made rocket carrying a 50-kilogramme warhead, adding it was fired by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, which has traded regular cross-border fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war began in early October, has denied responsibility for the strike, though it claimed multiple attacks on Israeli military positions that day.

Hezbollah says its actions against Israeli forces are in support of Palestinians in Gaza and its ally, the Hamas group.