Hezbollah hits Israel with deadliest attack in months-long conflict, IDF says, raising fears of escalation

JERUSALEM – The Iran-backed terrorist movement Hezbollah on Saturday rained down rockets on Israel, with at least one hitting a soccer field where children were playing in the northern Israeli town of Majdal Shams right by the border with Syria. At least 12 deaths have so far been reported with some 29 more injured, most reportedly between the ages of 10 and 20.

The soccer field in the majority Druze town was a scene of shocking violence and the most devastating loss of life in the north since Hezbollah entered the war on behalf of the terrorist entity Hamas on Oct. 7. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) put the blame squarely on Hezbollah in a statement issued shortly after the attack. "According to an IDF situational assessment and the intelligence in our possession, the rocket launch toward Majdal Shams was carried out by the Hezbollah terrorist organization. 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."

TRUMP GREETS NETANYAHU AT MAR-A-LAGO, SAYS WORLD WAR III COULD HAPPEN IF HARRIS WINS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was still in the U.S. when the attack happened, was updated and held situational assessments, according to a political source. 

Quoting the Prime Minister's office, TPS News agency reported that Netanyahu spoke with the spiritual leader of Israel's 152,000 Druze population where he, "made clear that Israel will not allow the murderous attack to simply pass on by, and that Hezbollah will pay a heavy price for this that it has not paid to this point." 

In that same TPS report, the agency said that Sheikh Muafek Tarif, the Druze spiritual leader, called the attack "cruel and murderous." 

Netanyahu will meet with his security cabinet as soon as he arrives back in Israel from his U.S. trip on Sunday.

Israel's Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, together with the IDF's Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi, were conducting a situational assessment on the attack. 

The IDF said approximately 30 projectiles were identified crossing into Israel from Lebanon on Saturday. The U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hezbollah is the de facto ruler over Lebanon. 

According to Israeli Channel 12, the country's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on a TV news show that, "We are approaching the moment of an all-out war in the north against Hezbollah, we will react in a disproportionate way," he reportedly said in a translated note on X by Israeli journalists Ben Caspit and Dafna Liel.

Earlier this month, Yakkov Amidror, the former national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, discussed with Fox News Digital the likelihood of an imminent full-blown war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based terrorist movement Hezbollah.

Saturday evening, the Biden White House issued a statement condemning the strike. "We condemn this horrific attack that reportedly killed a number of teenagers and children playing soccer on a Saturday evening in the village of Majdal Shams in northern Israel. Our hearts go out to the families of those who lost loved ones today, and we are praying for a speedy recovery for those who have been injured. Israel continues to face severe threats to its security, as the world saw today, and the United States will continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority. Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah."

ODDS OF ISRAEL-HEZBOLLAH WAR 'INEVITABLE,' EXPERTS FEAR: 'TOTALLY PESSIMISTIC'

Jason Brodsky, an expert on Iran and its proxies, told Fox News Digital that "Hezbollah’s secretary-general [Hassan Nasrallah]has been warning in July about striking "new targets" in Israel. This kind of strike in Majdal Shams is likely what he had in mind—especially as it is outside of major population centers like Tel Aviv, which would almost certainly trigger a decisive response, and it’s a Druze town. Nasrallah might have thought Hezbollah could get away with it."

The Israeli Druze community live in numerous villages dotted across northern Israel. They have had a presence in the region for at least a thousand years, and their communities are also found in Lebanon, Syria and parts of Jordan. 

Brodsky, who is the policy director of United Against A Nuclear Iran, continued, "But that may prove to be a miscalculation on Hezbollah’s part because an attack of this nature has the potential to change the dynamics of the conflict in the north due to the mass civilian casualties, including children. How did we get here? Eroded deterrence. Hezbollah has been under the impression that the U.S. would constrain Israeli operations in Lebanon. When U.S. policy is centered on deescalation, it begets the very escalation that they hope to avoid."

Israel has fought two wars (1982 and 2006) against Hezbollah. The IDF estimates that it has killed 500 terrorists in Lebanon since the start of the war against Hamas, and that some 5000 projectiles have been fired into Israel.

Fox News' Ruth Marks Eglash contributed to this report.