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While the UN devotes its human rights operations to the demonization of the democratic state of Israel above all others and condemns the United States more often than the vast majority of non-democracies around the world, the voices of real victims around the world must be heard.
U.N. Inaction on Lebanon
All Actions of the UN Human Rights System Critical of Specific States, 2024
(Top row, L-R) Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh, 16, Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub, 12, Hazem Akram Abu Saleh, 15, Milad Muadad Alsha’ar, 10 (Middle row, L-R) Alma Ayman Fakher Eldin, 11, Naji Taher Alhalabi, 11, Johnny Wadeea Ibrahim, 13, Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh, 12 (Bottom row, L-R) Fajer Laith Abu Saleh, 16, Vinees Adham Alsafadi, 11 Nathem Fakher Saeb, 16, and Gevara Ebraheem, 11, who were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack on Majdal Shams on July 27, 2024.
Lebanon, July 27, 2024
12 children killed as Hezbollah rocket hits Israeli soccer field
Original source
At least 12 children were killed Saturday, and dozens more people were wounded, when a rocket fired from Lebanon hit a soccer field in the northern Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. It was the single deadliest Hezbollah attack on northern Israel since fighting there began in October.
Residents and first responders described scenes of bloody carnage on the pitch. Though a warning siren had sounded, it was too short an alert for the victims, who were unable to flee in time. The IDF said late Saturday that all 12 fatalities were aged 10-20.
The shocking attack led to swift promises of retaliation and talk of an unprecedented response among Israeli officials as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hurried home from the US, raising the specter of a fresh escalation and a potential full-blown war between Israel and the Lebanese terror group.
A Biden administration official expressed concern that the deadly Hezbollah strike could spark an all-out war between Israel and the Iran-backed terror group. “What happened today could be the trigger we have been worried about and tried to avoid for 10 months,” the official told Axios.
Politicians from across the spectrum expressed outrage at the attack and criticized the government’s failure to bring security to the north after long months of fighting, while demanding decisive action against Hezbollah.
Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press conference on Saturday night that all the victims were aged 10 to 20.
Photographs and video from the scene immediately after the rocket strike showed people scrambling to help the casualties and parents searching desperately for their children.
Baruch Padeh Medical Center near Tiberias said four people in serious condition were brought to the hospital. Ziv Medical Center in Safed said it admitted 32 wounded, including six being treated in the trauma ward, 13 in moderate-to-serious condition, and 10 who were lightly hurt. Another four casualties were taken to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
Medics declared 10 of the victims dead at the scene, while two were declared dead at hospitals, officials said.
“We witnessed great destruction when we arrived at the soccer field, as well as items that were on fire. There were casualties on the grass and the scene was gruesome,” said Idan Avshalom, a medic with the Magen David Adom ambulance service.
Hezbollah initially claimed responsibility for launching a barrage of Katyusha rockets and a single heavy Falaq rocket at a nearby military base.
As news emerged of the heavy rocket hitting the Druze town, and the deadly outcome of the strike, the terror group issued a statement that it had “absolutely nothing to do with the incident.”
The army rejected that assertion, saying the attack “was carried out by the Hezbollah terror group” while citing “assessments carried out by the IDF and reliable intelligence information available to us.”
The IDF said it had determined that the rocket was launched by the terror group from an area just north of the Lebanese village of Chebaa.
Hagari in a press conference from the scene identified the rocket that struck Majdal Shams as an Iranian-made Falaq-1.
“A Falaq-1 rocket struck here in the soccer field, it is an Iranian rocket, manufactured in Iran, a rocket with a warhead of over 50 kilograms of explosives,” he said.
“The forensic findings at the scene point to this rocket. Falaq-1 is only in use by the Hezbollah terror group, which carried out this attack from Chebaa,” Hagari added.
Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, revealed the name of the Hezbollah commander who directed the deadly rocket attack.
He said the attack was directed by Ali Muhammad Yahya, who is the commander of a rocket launching site in the Chebaa area.
“Despite its attempts to deny: Hezbollah is responsible for the massacre in Majdal Shams and the killing of children and boys on the soccer field,” Adraee added...
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