Benjamin Netanyahu vows strong response to Hezbollah attack killing 12 children in Majdal Shams

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a harsh response to the Hezbollah strike that killed 12 children amid calls by the international community for Israeli restrain.

“Our response will come, and it will be hard,” Netanyahu said during a visit Monday to the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights that came under attack on Saturday.

The state of Israel, he said, cannot and will not normalize this,” he stated.

Late Sunday the security cabinet spent over three hours debating a response to the Hezbollah attack, authorizing Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to take action.

Netanyahu traveled to the Druze village with Druze community leader Sheikh Muafak Ṭarif and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar. He met with Majdal Shams local council head Dolan Abu Sales and Ein Qiniyye Regional Council head Wael Mugrabi and said,”We came here today to Majdal Shams, together with Sheikh Muafak Tarif and the heads of the authorities of Majdal Shams and Ein Qiniyye, to express our deep sympathy and deep shock at the atrocity that took place here. It is a terrible disaster. 

“Like all citizens of Israel, and I must tell you, like many in the entire world, we were shocked to the core by this terrible carnage,” Netanyahu stated.

‘These children are our children’

He blamed Iran for the attack, explaining that Hezbollah had acted with “Iranian backing” and launched an Iranian-made missile that struck the children as they played soccer.

“The heart is torn by the heavy disaster. We embrace the families who are now going through indescribable suffering.

“These children are our children,” Netanyahu said, as he recalled that the Druze community had paid a heavy price during the last nine months of cross-border IDF-Hezbolalh violence. He also pointed to the lives lost on both Israel’s northern and southern fronts.

“We are brothers. We have a covenant of life, but unfortunately, it is also a covenant for moments of bereavement and grief,” Netanyahu stated.

He urged the Druze community to “do not let your spirits fall” and “do not lose hope” in the face of attacks by the “evil axis of Iran and Hezbollah.”

“The State of Israel will continue to stand by your side, here, and in the entire region, today, tomorrow, and forever,” he stated. 

According to media reports from the scene, he was heckled by angry residents upset by the lack of security along that northern area. They called out “murderer, you are not wanted here.”

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