Hezbollah will 'pay heavy price’ for Golan Heights attack, warns Benjamin Netanyahu

However, Hezbollah has denied it was behind the rocket strike that killed 11 youngsters playing football in the Druze village of the Majdal Shams town.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Hezbollah that it will ‘pay a heavy price’ for Saturday’s rocket strike that killed 11 youngsters in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights region.

Bicycles sit next to the area that was hit by a rocket that killed multiple children and teenagers at a soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, Saturday, July 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

"Israel will not let this murderous attack go unanswered and Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for it, a price it has not paid before, Netanyahu told a local community leader, as per a statement from the Prime Minister's Office of Israel.

Further, the Israeli premier's office stated that Netanyahu has decided to return ‘as quickly as possible’ from the United States, where he met President Joe Biden and addressed the US Congress earlier this week.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, has asserted that it will prepare a ‘response’ against Hezbollah.

“This attack shows the true face of Hezbollah – a terrorist organisation that targets and murders children playing soccer on a Saturday evening,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a video message on X (formerly Twitter).

He also called it the ‘deadliest attack’ on Israeli civilians since October 7, the day last year when Hamas attacked southern Israel, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza.

“While athletes from around the world are competing at the #Olympics2024, Hezbollah is murdering the next generation of Israeli athletes. A group of children enjoying life's simplest pleasures was murdered in cold blood when a Hezbollah rocket hit the soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights,” another IDF post read.

However, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, denied it was behind the deadly strike.

According to the militant group, its military wing, Islamic Resistance, had ‘no connection to this incident.’

The rocket attack came after an Israeli strike killed four Hezbollah fighters in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, prompting a retaliation from the group, which has exchanged fire with the IDF on a near-daily basis since the Gaza war erupted.

(With AFP inputs)