Rocket From Lebanon Kills at Least 12 in Israeli-Controlled Golan Heights

A rocket from Lebanon struck a soccer field on Saturday in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing at least 12 people, mostly teenagers and children, according to the Israeli military. It was the deadliest single attack from across Israel’s northern border in months of hostilities and raised fears of an escalation in the conflict.

Israeli officials accused Hezbollah, the politically powerful Lebanese armed group, of firing the rocket and vowed to respond. Hezbollah denied responsibility, although the group did say it had launched several barrages of missiles at northern Israel on Saturday.

The Israeli emergency rescue service, Magen David Adom, said that in addition to the 12 dead, about 20 people had been wounded, some of them seriously, in the Druse town of Majdal Shams. The Israeli military said that the ages of those killed or wounded ranged from 10 to 20 years old, and that they had been playing soccer at the time of the attack.

Idan Avshalom, a paramedic with Magen David Adom, described a “gruesome” scene at the soccer field, with bodies on the ground and fires burning. “We immediately began triage,” he said.

Even as Israel has waged a nearly 10-month-long war with Hamas in Gaza to the south, it has traded fire with Hezbollah to the north; both groups are backed by Iran, Israel’s regional adversary. Hezbollah began shooting missiles and drones at Israel shortly after Hamas launched its Oct. 7 attack that set off the war in Gaza.

For months, the well-armed Hezbollah has fired thousands of missiles and drones at Israel in solidarity with Hamas, leading tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate their homes. Israel has retaliated in Lebanon, devastating towns near the border, prompting more than 90,000 to flee north and killing more than 460 people, mostly militants.

At the same time, the two sides have sought to avoid igniting a full-blown war, which would likely devastate both Israel and Lebanon. But experts have warned that a deadly miscalculation could ignite a broader escalation, and on both sides of the border, Israelis and Lebanese were left wondering on Saturday night whether the attack on Majdal Shams was just that.

The attack caught Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in the United States, where he has spent the last few days meeting with President Biden and Donald J. Trump, who is running for president again. Mr. Netanyahu’s office said he had instructed that his return flight be made as early as possible.

“Israel will not overlook this murderous attack,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement distributed by his office. “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price which it has not paid up to now.”

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, told reporters that the rocket that struck the soccer field was an Iranian model — a Falaq-1 — that carried a 50-kilogram warhead. He said that only Hezbollah possessed those rockets in Lebanon.

“We will act to restore full security on our northern border,” Admiral Hagari said.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 war, and it is home to more than 20,000 Druse Arabs. Israel effectively annexed the territory in 1981, a move that was widely rejected by the international community. Nearly four decades later, President Donald J. Trump signed a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the plateau, but other powerful countries have not followed suit.

There are four Druse villages in the Golan; their Arabic-speaking residents practice a largely esoteric religion that is often described as an offshoot of Ismaili Islam. While many residents feel loyal to Syria, thousands have become Israeli citizens.

Residents of the town of Majdal Shams expressed horror and sadness in the wake of the deadly strike.

“I didn’t expect that our village would be hit, but it’s happened now,” said Madad al-Shaer, 50, an owner of a falafel and hummus restaurant. “No one is protected. It doesn’t matter if you’re living in a Druse or Jewish village.”

Mr. Shaer, a father of three, said that his daughter frequently played at the soccer field that was struck, but that she was not there on Saturday.

In a Facebook post, the Majdal Shams local council said that “a dark day” had befallen the village and called on people to stay in their homes.

The Biden administration has sought to mediate a truce between Israel and Hezbollah, including by dispatching Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to the president, to meet with senior officials in Jerusalem and Beirut.

“The United States will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority,” the White House’s National Security Council said in a statement on Saturday, referring to the demarcation between Israel, Lebanon and the Golan Heights. “Our support for Israel’s security is ironclad.”

But Hezbollah has said it will not cease its attacks until Israel ends its campaign in Gaza — a prospect that remains remote.

The strike on Majdal Shams was likely to increase the pressure on Mr. Netanyahu’s government to respond more forcefully to Hezbollah’s rocket and drone attacks, which have escalated in recent weeks.

Nearly 10 months into the war, the roughly 60,000 Israelis evacuated from communities near the border remain displaced. They have little idea of when they might return, and some say only a major operation against Hezbollah will make them feel safe enough to go back home.

Right-wing Israeli lawmakers called for Israel to launch a major military operation against Hezbollah in response to the strike. Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right government minister, has argued for months that Israel should create a buffer zone inside Lebanon to drive Hezbollah away from the border.

“For the death of small children, Nasrallah should pay with his head.” Mr. Smotrich wrote on social media after the attack on Saturday, referring to Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah. “Lebanon as a whole has to pay the price.”

Mohanad Hage Ali, a Beirut-based fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said that there would be a “strong Israeli response” to the strike, but that Hezbollah would in turn demonstrate restraint so as not to risk all-out war.

Without naming Hezbollah or any other militant group, the Lebanese government condemned “all acts of violence and aggression” against all civilians and called targeting them “a flagrant violation of international law.”

Israel and Hezbollah last fought a major land war in 2006, after the Lebanese militants abducted and killed Israeli soldiers in a cross-border ambush. Large swaths of Beirut were devastated in the battle; Mr. Nasrallah later conceded that he would not have launched the attack if he had foreseen its deadly consequences.

More than 1,000 Lebanese and 150 Israelis were killed in the 2006 war. During that conflict, a rocket fired by Hezbollah killed two Arab children in the city of Nazareth in Israel. Mr. Nasrallah later made a public apology.

Euan Ward contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, and Peter Baker from Washington.