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Israeli security forces aboard a helicopter near a site where a reported strike from Lebanon fell in the village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, July 27, 2024. (Credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP )

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Deadly strike on Israeli-occupied Golan Heights: Hezbollah will pay 'high price,' Netanyahu threatens: Gaza war, day 295

What you need to know

Hezbollah denies any responsibility for the strike in Majdel Shams; the Israeli army says it was launched from the Shebaa region (Hasbaya).

The eleven dead were "children aged 8 to 14" who playing on a football field, according to a local doctor.

Thirty killed in an Israeli strike on a school in Deir el-Balah, Gaza.


23:34 Beirut Time

Thank you for following our LIVE blog. We will have more updates tomorrow morning. 

23:02 Beirut Time

Israel's security cabinet will meet tomorrow at 16:00 (Beirut time) to discuss the response to the Majdel Shams strike - reports Al Jazeera Correspondent, Zeina Khodr. 

22:52 Beirut Time

Hezbollah will pay a "high price, one it has never had to pay before" for the strike on a football field that killed eleven people in Majdel Shams, Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened. The Israeli Prime Minister made this statement during a phone call with the leader of the Druze community in Israel, according to a statement released by his office.

Hezbollah has denied any responsibility for the strike, while Israel says it has evidence it was launched by the Shiite party from southern Lebanon.

22:48 Beirut Time

A Doctor who works at a clinic in Majdal Shams says "all the victims were children aged eight to 14, all in sports clothes. They had shrapnel wounds all over their bodies", Haaretz reports.

Dr. Osama Halabi described it as a "severe incident" and a "mass casualty event in every sense."

At least eleven people have been confirmed dead.

22:34 Beirut Time

Israeli army arabic language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, has said in a post on X that its analysis suggests that a 'rocket' that struck Majdal Shams was launched "from an area located north of the village of Shebaa in southern Lebanon."

Earlier, Hezbollah denied any involvement. 

22:25 Beirut Time

According to a PSP source contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt received a telephone call from U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who expressed his "concern" about developments in south Lebanon in the light of the Majdal Shams incident.

According to the source, Joumblatt "reiterated the need for an immediate halt to Israeli aggression against Palestine and Lebanon, underlining his solidarity with all Lebanese in the face of this aggression" before noting that he "continues in parallel his efforts to try, as far as possible, to prevent the war from spreading."

22:23 Beirut Time

Walid Joumblatt, the former head of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party, also reacted to the "tragic incident in Majdal Shams" in a statement, in which he also strongly criticized Israel.

Joumblatt began by offering his "sincere condolences and sympathy to the families" of the victims and "to the entire population of the occupied Syrian Golan." He added that "targeting civilians is unacceptable and condemnable, whether in occupied Palestine, the occupied Golan or southern Lebanon."

"The history and the present of the Israeli enemy are full of the massacres it has committed and continues to commit against civilians," continued Joumblatt, calling for “any slippage” to be avoided. He also called for "the war to be prevented from spreading and for an immediate end to the aggression and attacks."

Finally, he took note of Hezbollah's statement denying any involvement in the deadly incident in Majdal Shams, stressing that Israel has "long sought to spark conflict and fragment the region."

22:18 Beirut Time

According to the Lebanse channel MTV, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri received a call from the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, in which he reportedly told her that "Lebanon, including the villages in the south, in particular those on the border, has been exposed for more than nine months to continuous Israeli aggression“ using ”internationally banned weapons [white phosphorus] sparing neither civilians, agricultural land, rescue teams nor journalists."

Berri reportedly also denounced Israel's "flagrant and explicit" violations of the provisions of Resolution 1701, in contrast to "Lebanon and its resistance [which] remain committed to respecting this resolution and the rules of engagement by avoiding targeting civilians."

He went on to say that "the resistance's denial of what happened today in the town of Majdal Shams, on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, categorically confirms this commitment and the lack of responsibility of Lebanon and its resistance for what happened."

22:03 Beirut Time

Local residents gather at a site where a reported strike from Lebanon fell in Majdal Shams village in the Israeli-annexed Golan area on July 27, 2024. (Credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP)


22:00 Beirut Time

The death toll in the Majdal Shams strike has risen to 11, Haaretz reports.

21:44 Beirut Time

The United States is very concerned that the attack "on the Golan Heights" could lead to all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, according to Reuters, which quotes U.S. officials contacted by Axios.

21:42 Beirut Time

The Israeli army has described strike this afternoon on Majdal Shams as "the deadliest" attack on civilians since Oct. 7," according to AFP.

21:41 Beirut Time

Israel President, Isaac Herzog, has accused Hezbollah of having "brutally attacked and murdered children, whose only crime was going out to play soccer."

Writing in a post on X, Herzog said that "the world cannot continue to sit in silence in the face of Nasrallah's terror attacks, which come at the behest of the empire of evil in Iran."


21:35 Beirut Time

The office of Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati has issued a statement "condemning acts of violence and attacks against civilians" and "calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts." The statement stressed that "targeting civilians constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and is incompatible with the principles of humanity."

21:06 Beirut Time

The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says its commander is in touch with Lebanese and Israeli authorities following the Madjal Shams strike, seeking to maintain calm, Reuters reports. 

20:58 Beirut Time

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has spoken with his state's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following what Israel is describing as a deadly rocket attack by Hezbollah in Majdal Shams, without giving details of what the two discussed, the Times of Israel reports, citing Israel's Channel 12.

"There is no doubt that Hezbollah has crossed all red lines," Katz is quoted as telling Channel 12 news. "We are facing an all-out war," he added.

20:37 Beirut Time

The death toll from rocket strike on Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights has risen to 10, with 24 others 24 wounded, six of them seriously, Haaretz reports.

20:29 Beirut Time

An Israeli army official has accused Hezbollah of firing the rocket that hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams, killing 10 people.

"The Hezbollah terrorist organization is behind the rocket launch at a soccer field in Majdal Shams," AFP quote the Israeli army as saying in a statement.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.

20:16 Beirut Time

Haaretz is reporting that Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant "is currently assessing the situation with [army] Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi and senior security officials following the rocket attack in Majdal Shams." According to the Israeli media, the strike in question killed nine people, including children.

20:08 Beirut Time

Hezbollah says it "categorically denies the allegations made by some enemy media and various media platforms about the targeting of Majdal Shams." The party also in its statement stressed that "the Islamic Resistance had nothing to do with the incident."

19:59 Beirut Time

⚡ Haaretz is now reporting that  the "strike" on Majdal Shams has killed nine people. Reuters relayed the same death toll, citing Israel's Channel 13 and referring to a strike "which hit a soccer field," without giving any further details for the moment.

A Hezbollah official quoted by Reuters denies any responsibility for the attack.

19:46 Beirut Time

Here's the latest from south Lebanon:

* Israeli aircraft bombarded the outskirts of the towns of Houla and Markaba (Bint Jbeil), according to reports from local residents.

* Hezbollah has announced three more operations in retaliation for the Israeli attack on Kfar Kila (Marjayoun). The first hit the Harmon Brigade headquarters in the Maaleh Golani barracks, not far from the disputed Shebaa Farms, with a Falaq-1 missile; a second targeted the Sahl battalion headquarters in the Beit Hillel barracks, Beit Hillel, opposite Houla, in the Marjayoun district, with dozens of Katyusha rockets; and a third came in Zebdine, in the disputed Shebaa farms, targeting a battalion headquarters of the Harmon brigade with Katyusha rockets and artillery shells. Hezbollah has not announced any attack today on Madjal Shams, where Israeli media is reporting a "strike" that critically injured nine people.

19:36 Beirut Time

Haaretz is citing medical sources as saying there are "nine critically wounded, aged between 10 and 20" in the strike on Majdal Shams, a largely Druze town in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan. The Israeli daily points out that the Israeli army has not yet confirmed whether the strike was was a drone attack or a rocket attack.

19:18 Beirut Time

Latest updates from the Lebanese-Israeli border:

* In response to the Israeli airstrike that killed four Hezbollah fighters in the village of Kfar Kila earlier today, Hezbollah said that it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at the headquarters of the Hermon Brigade in the Ma'aleh Golani barracks.

* The party also said that in response to the Kfar Kila attack, it fired a Burkan rocket at a battalion headquarters currently occupied by forces from the Golani Brigade at the Ramim Barracks, facing the Lebanese village of Houla (Marjayoun), at 5:20 p.m.

* L'Orient Today earlier reported that five people were critically wounded and six seriously injured when a projectile fell in the Golan Heights city of Majdal Shams, a predominantly Druze village in the part of the Syrian Golan annexed by Israel. According to Haaretz, the "wounded include children, and the projectile fell near a soccer field and playground in the city." The Israeli newspaper added that "this is the most severe incident of harm to northern Israeli civilians since the beginning of the war." Citing a political source, Haaretz also reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been "informed and is in security consultations regarding the incident."

19:02 Beirut Time

⚡ More from south Lebanon:

In retaliation for the Israeli attack on the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun) that killed four Hezbollah fighters earlier today, Hezbollah announced that it had fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israeli artillery positions at Zaoura in the Golan Heights. This is Hezbollah's seventh operation today.

Quoting the Magen David Adom emergency service, Haaretz reported that there were "11 wounded, five of them in critical condition and six in serious condition, following the fall of a projectile in the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams."

18:29 Beirut Time

Hezbollah has announced the deaths of four fighters: Naim Farhat from the village of Beit Chama (Bekaa), Mohammad Mreish from the area of Bashoura (Beirut), Ahmad Moussa from the city of Tripoli and Hassan al-Saidi from Toul (Nabatieh district).

According to our correspondent in southern Lebanon, they were all killed in the Israeli airstrike that targeted the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun district) earlier today.

Some 384 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Lebanon and Syria since October.

18:23 Beirut Time

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris has denounced as "inhuman and despicable" the Israeli strike on a school in Deir al-Balah, in the Gaza Strip, which the Gaza Health Ministry says left 30 people dead today.

This attack by the Israeli army is "a new demonstration of brutal, excessive violence," Harris said in a statement.

18:21 Beirut Time

Also in southern Lebanon, where incidents on the border with Israel continued to occur:

* In response to the Israeli attack on the village of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), which killed four people, Hezbollah announced that it had targeted a "building in which Israeli soldiers were positioned" in the village of Manara, opposite Houla (Marjayoun), adding that the attack caused casualties. This is the second attack by the party on Manara in a short space of time.

* The party also claimed to have destroyed "spy equipment" at the Israeli site of Samaka, in the Kfar Shuba hills (north of the town of the same name in the Hasbaya), at 4:40 p.m.

* According to reports from local residents relayed by our correspondent in the south, five Israeli artillery shells fell on the outskirts of Houla and Wadi Slouki (Marjayoun).

18:08 Beirut Time

A new update on the situation on the border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel:

* Hezbollah says that it launched drones at a "technical spying system" at the Israeli site of Manara, opposite Houla (Marjayoun), and at a deployment of Israeli soldiers near the same site. The party also claimed that the attack caused casualties.

* Sirens sounded in northern Israel following a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon, according to Haaretz. Citing the Israeli army, the Israeli daily reported that dozens of rockets had been launched in the direction of northern Israel.

* Israeli artillery fired four shells on the outskirts of Aitaroun (Bint Jbeil), residents told our correspondent.

18:05 Beirut Time

The president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee says that he will not "give instructions" to athletes from his delegation to withdraw against an Israeli opponent during the Paris Olympics. "I have not and will not give such instructions, but you can ask the athletes," Jibril Rajoub told AFP in an interview.

17:30 Beirut Time

New update on the situation in south Lebanon:

* According to reports from local residents, Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of Kfar Shuba (Hasbaya).

16:32 Beirut Time

A least four people were killed by the Israeli strike that earlier today targeted the locality of Kfar Kila (Marjayoun), destroying two dwellings, according to rescue workers from al-Risala Scouts, which is affiliated with the Amal Movement, and sources contacted by our correspondent in the region.

Reports from the site of the strike initially indicated there were no casualties in the attack. Later, at least four people were reported injured.

The latest reports also indicate a fifth person has been found alive under the rubble.

15:54 Beirut Time

Here's the latest on the situation on the border between southern Lebanon and northern Israel:

* In response to an Israeli attack on the village of Markaba that killed two Hezbollah members on Friday, Hezbollah announced that it had carried out a successful drone attack targeting a deployment of officers and soldiers of an Israeli armored force that was recently stationed north of the Yiftah barracks, opposite the locality of Blida (Marjayoun).

* Four shells fired by Israeli artillery fell on the western and southern suburbs of Mais al-Jabal (Marjayoun), residents told our correspondent in the south.

* Israeli fighter jets broke the sound barrier over southern Lebanon and the western Bekaa, according to our correspondents Muntasser Abdallah in southern Lebanon and Sarah Abdallah in the Bekaa.

15:52 Beirut Time

Gaza's Civil Defense has announced that the Israeli operation underway since Monday in Khan Younis had claimed around 170 lives in and around the densely populated town in the south of the Gaza Strip.

"Since the start of the Israeli military operation in the Khan Younis area, we're talking about 170 martyrs and hundreds of wounded," Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP, referring to the operation that began on Monday.

15:25 Beirut Time

The Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has announced that the death toll from the Israeli strike on a school in the center of the Palestinian territory has risen from 12 to 30, in addition to 100 wounded.

"Khadija School, which housed a makeshift medical unit in the Deir al-Balah area, was targeted a short time ago [by a strike that] left 30 martyrs and more than 100 wounded," the ministry said in a statement.

For its part, the Israeli army said it had carried out an operation in the school, targeting the "terrorists" operating there.

14:50 Beirut Time

(Credit: Bashar Taleb/AFP)

Smoke rises during an Israeli strike in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on July 27, 2024. At least 12 Palestinians were killed today in an Israeli attack on a school for displaced persons in the west of the city, according to the Gaza Civil Defense Service.

14:49 Beirut Time

⚡ At least 39,258 Palestinians have been killed and 90,589 injured in Israel's military offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, Gaza's health ministry says.

14:29 Beirut Time

Screenshot of a video of the strike relayed by our correspondent Muntasser Abdallah.

New update on the situation in south Lebanon:

* The Israeli air force fired two missiles at the Kfar Kila area (in the Marjayoun district), according to local residents. Two homes were completely destroyed, but there no casualties have been reported.

12:47 Beirut Time

At least 12 Palestinians have been killed killed today in an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced people west of Gaza's Deir al-Balah, Reuters reports, citing Gaza's Civil Defense service. 

12:35 Beirut Time

Also in south Lebanon this morning:

* Hezbollah announced that it had targeted "spy equipment" at the Israeli Misgav Am site, opposite the Lebanese village of Odaisseh (Marjayoun), at 7:58 a.m.

* The party also claimed to have fired rockets at the Israeli post of Jardah, opposite Dhaira (Sour), at 8:25 a.m.

* Israeli artillery fire targeted the outskirts of Jibbayn (Sour) and Odaisseh, according to local residents.

11:57 Beirut Time

The Israeli navy has "successfully intercepted a drone launched from Lebanon" over Israel's maritime space, the Israel army announced on X.

According to Haaretz, Israeli army officials estimate that the "target of the aircraft was one of Israel's gas rigs, but it is still unknown whether its intention was to photograph them or to strike them." The Israeli army's radio identified the rig as the offshore Karish gas field.

Haaretz added that the officials estimate the "drone was launched by Hezbollah, but haven't ruled out the possibility that one of the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq launched it."

Two years ago, amid tense Lebanese-Israeli maritime border negotiations, Hezbollah sent three unarmed drones towards the Karish gas field. However, since the start of the present ongoing cross-border hostilities in October, the party has not claimed any operation against this field.

Hezbollah has recently filmed, through its drones, strategic locations in Haifa, the Golan Heights and the Ramat David Israeli air base and posted videos showing the footage taken.

11:45 Beirut Time

The situation on the Lebanese border with northern Israel remained relatively calm last night, according to our correspondent in the south, Muntasser Abdallah.

Only one incident occurred around midnight, when the Israeli army launched heavy machine-gun fire at the area between the village of Kfar Kila and the Khiam plain (both in the Marjayoun district), according to a security source.

11:43 Beirut Time

Egyptian, American, Qatari and Israeli delegations are expected in Rome tomorrow for talks on a truce in the war in Gaza, a "senior official" quoted by al-Qahera News, a media outlet close to Egyptian intelligence, told AFP on Friday.

"A quadripartite meeting bringing together Egyptian officials, their American and Qatari counterparts, in the presence of the head of Israeli intelligence, will take place in Rome on Sunday to reach agreement on a truce in Gaza," the source said.

Egypt insists "on the need for the agreement to require an immediate cease-fire and guarantee the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza" and "to ensure freedom of movement for Gaza's citizens and a complete [Israeli] withdrawal from the Rafah crossing," on the border between Egypt and the Palestinian territory, according to the same source.

11:39 Beirut Time

In recent months, the Israeli army has returned to several areas of the Gaza Strip after previously indicating that there were no more Hamas militants in these locations.

Israel's Gaza offensive has killed at least 39,175 people to date, most of them civilians, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-led Gaza government. The ongoing offensive is a response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people abducted during the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil, 111 are still being held in the Gaza Strip, 39 of whom are thought to be dead, according to the army, some of them in areas that it has heavily bombarded.

Lastly, the Israeli army said it had "eliminated around 100 terrorists" in Khan Younis since announcing its operation four days ago.

11:36 Beirut Time

To begin with, the situation in Gaza:

* According to AFP, the Israeli army has issued new evacuation orders for the residents of Khan Younis, expanding its operation in and around this southern Gaza Strip town where tens of thousands of Palestinians have already been displaced for several days.

* The U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) yesterday said that more than 180,000 people had already fled the fierce fighting in Khan Younis since the start of a new Israeli army operation in the area on Monday, following the discovery of the bodies of five captives killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. The Israeli army said it had launched the operation to stop rockets being fired from the area towards Israel.

11:34 Beirut Time

Hello,.

It's day 295 of the war in the Gaza Strip. It is also the 294th day since the opening of a front in southern Lebanon between Hezbollah and the Israeli army.

Follow our live coverage of the conflict and its repercussions in the region here.