Eleven of the 12 children killed were named by Arabic and Hebrew media on Sunday morning.
The victims were named as: Alma Ayman Fakher Eldin, 11; Milad Muadad Alsha’ar, 10; Vinees Adham Alsafadi, 11; Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub, 12; Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh, 12; Johnny Wadeea Ibrahim, 13; Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh, 16; Naji Taher Alhalabi, 11; Fajer Laith Abu Saleh, 16; Hazem Akram Abu Saleh, 15; and Nathem Fakher Saeb, 16.
12 young people were killed in a rocket attack on a football pitch in this Druze Arab community.Credit: Getty Images
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said that the rocket was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 with a warhead of over 110 pounds of explosives.
Residents and first responders said the warning siren had sounded too late for the victims to flee.
One witness, who was not identified by name, spoke of gruesome scenes as they started scooping up body parts in the aftermath.
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“The children were playing, they came to have fun and enjoy themselves,” the witness told Haaretz.
“I started picking up scattered body parts. Children whose bodies were flung (into the air). The explosion shredded them to pieces.”
Professor Salman Zarka, director of Ziv Medical Centre in Safed, told Channel 12 that 30 injured children arrived in the immediate aftermath of the attack, 15 of whom were still in hospital as of Sunday evening.
“Sadly, we are used to mass casualty events, but it’s children. It’s a massive tragedy for the area,” added Zarka.
Fahid Safadi, a Masada Regional Council member, said he was at a nearby supermarket when the rocket hit.
“I heard the explosion, everything shook. I stepped outside the supermarket where I was and saw in front of me the horrors. Screaming, crying, people running. An image that will remain with my soul for a lifetime. I don’t expect Israel to react strongly – this is neither Jewish blood nor the blood of the residents of Tel Aviv, ” he told the Walla news site.
Photos from the scene show the pitch in a state of disrepair – blown out, twisted pieces of fence, chunks of torn astroturf, abandoned bicycles and broken scooters.
At the funeral on Sunday afternoon, thousands of mourners packed the town of Majdal Shams as small, plain caskets, draped with white cloth and a few bunches of flowers, were carried through the crowd.
Men were dressed in the community’s traditional white hats with red tops, while women wore shawls and wept. Some carried large photos of the children.
Residents and authorities stand at a soccer field that was hit by a rocket.Credit: AP
“Our community is very close-knit. These children are like the children of everybody in the village,” Fadi Mahmud, 48, said.
As politicians ignored calls for them to stay away, sorrow gave way to anger.
One man wearing a military uniform shouted at Barkat and Silman.
“Now you come here? Ten months you didn’t come!” he said to applause.
The source of their rage was the fear that the tragedy would be exploited for personal and political gain.
Yasser Gadban, chairman of the Forum of Druze and Circassian Authorities, had written to the government saying: “We ask all government representatives, ministers and senior officers, do not come. Due to the sensitivity of the situation, we ask that you not turn a massacre event into a political event. We are requesting a quiet, religious funeral in accordance with Druze custom.”
Top Israeli government officials have drawn flak from families of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, as being indifferent to their suffering and the plight of the victims. Protests have been happening almost daily for their return and for Netanyahu to step down.
On Sunday, Yoav Gallant, defence minister, visited the site of the strike and said: “We will hit the enemy hard,” raising fears of a wider Middle East war.
Smotrich tweeted: “For the deaths of little children, [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah should pay with his head,” adding that it is “time for action”. He said: “Lebanon as a whole has to pay the price.”
Iran’s foreign ministry warned Israel against what it called any new adventure in Lebanon.
Hamas’s massacre of 1200 civilians on October 7 and Israel’s vicious response in Gaza has tested the patience and political capital of Israel’s strongest allies, Britain and the US. The Democrat Party, especially, is trying to win back the many voters it has lost due to its support for Israel, ahead of the election in November.
Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said there was every indication that the rocket that hit a sports field where children were playing soccer had been fired by Hezbollah and said Washington stood by Israel’s right to defend itself.
But he said the US did not want a further escalation of the conflict.
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David Lammy, Britain’s foreign minister, said Hezbollah must cease its attacks on Israel and that Britain was “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation and destabilisation”.
For the mourners on Sunday, no amount of retribution will ease their pain.
“It’s a Saturday that will be engraved in memory as a low point in humanity, the killing of children. The scenes of horror will never be erased,” said Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, Druze spiritual leader.
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