Hezbollah rocket kills 12, mostly children, in Golan Druze town
Twelve children and youths were killed, and dozens more people wounded, when a Hezbollah heavy rocket hit near a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Saturday evening.
“The Hezbollah terrorist organization is behind the rocket launch at a soccer field in Majdal Shams which caused multiple civilian casualties, including children, earlier this evening,” the Israel Defense Forces said.
The rocket strike, which occurred at 6:18 p.m., was part of the third barrage fired from Lebanon that evening by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization, according to the Israeli military.
“All the fatalities are children, aged 10 to 20. We share in the grief of the families and embrace the Druze community in its difficult time,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters.
“In the past hour, Hezbollah has been lying and denying responsibility for the incident. Our intelligence is clear: Hezbollah is responsible for the murder of innocent children,” he added.
More than 30 wounded were evacuated to hospitals by Magen David Adom first responders and IDF helicopters.
“We arrived at the soccer field and saw destruction and items on fire,” said MDA medic Idan Avshalom. “Victims were lying on the grass, and the scenes were difficult. We immediately began triaging the injured. During the incident, there were additional [rocket] alerts, and medical treatment for the injured is still ongoing,” he added.
In response to the incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved up his return flight from the United States, according to his office.
“The prime minister will convene the Security Cabinet immediately upon his return to Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, Operations Directorate head Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar and other members of the General Staff were conducting a situational assessment following the attack.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog tweeted, “The terrible and shocking disaster in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the north of Israel is truly heartbreaking. There are no words that can comfort the families of the young victims who lost their lives through no fault of their own.”
He continued, “Hezbollah, armed and funded by Iran, does not distinguish between child or adult, soldier or civilian, Jew or Muslim, Druze or Christian.”
Hezbollah has attacked Israel nearly every day since it joined the war in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and explosive drones at Israeli towns. Tens of thousands of Israeli civilians remain internally displaced due to the ongoing violence.
The Druze are an ethnoreligious group native to the Middle East, today comprising a population of nearly one million throughout Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Some 140,000 Druze live in Israel. Another 500,000 live in Syria.The Druze connection to the Jewish people dates back to Moses and Mount Sinai with Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, from whom the Druze have a strong tradition that they are descended.
Indeed, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, a French medieval commentator on the Bible known by the acronym Rashi, taught that the Druze have an inheritance in the Land of Israel, based on a verse in Numbers describing the farewell between Moses and his father-in-law.
And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what good soever Hashem shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee.’ Numbers 10:32
Rashi explained that the ‘good’ was a portion of the most fertile land near Jericho.This Biblical bond between the Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Jethro, also known as the tribe of Kenite, is described in Jewish sources as the basis for a future end-of-days alliance. Yeranen Yaakov, a prominent geula (redemption) blogger, explained that the Sons of Jethro figure into the Messianic process through the prophecy of Balaam in Numbers.
And he looked on Amalek, and took up his parable, and said: Amalek was the first of the nations; but his end shall come to destruction. And he looked on the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said: Though firm be thy dwelling-place, and though thy nest be set in the rock. Numbers 24:20-21
Jethro was described as a Kenite in Judges, a tribe that lived near the Amalekites.
And the children of the Kenite, Moshe’s father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Yehuda… Judges 1:16
In a powerful precedent to the modern Druze-Jewish brotherhood, the Kenites in the Book of Judges joined with Yehuda in order to combat the Canaanite inhabitants of Israel.
The 13th-century Spanish Biblical commentator Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, commonly known as Ramban, taught that Balaam’s words advised the Sons of Jethro that if they lived among the Jewish people, they too would be exiled but would return with the Jews. However, if they stayed among the Amalekites they would be destroyed along with the enemy.
The Jews are commanded to battle the Amalekites, their archetypal enemy, at any place and at any time. Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, a 12th-century Spanish Torah authority known as Rambam, taught that Balaam’s prophecy placed at least some of the Sons of Jethro, or the Druze, alongside the Jews in this Messianic battle.
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