Israel pledges to hit Hezbollah hard after rocket kills 12 on football field
Netanyahu to convene security cabinet after return from US
Defence minister says Israel will hit enemy hard
US condemns attack, says support for Israel is 'iron-clad'
Hezbollah denies responsibility for the rocket strike
Adds Netanyahu returns and meets security officials paragraph 3, comments from Blinken paragraphs 4-5, Hezbollah alert paragraph 13, Syria paragraph 20, background on Druze paragraph 27
By Avi Ohayon
MAJDAL SHAMS, Golan Heights, July 28 (Reuters) -Thousands of mourners attended funeral ceremonies on Sunday for the 12 children and teenagers killed by a rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights as Israel vowed swift retaliation against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Hezbollah denied any responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since Hamas' Oct. 7 assault sparked the war in Gaza, which has since spread to several fronts and now risks spilling into a wider regional conflict.
Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon overnight but a stronger response was expected following a meeting of the security cabinet at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from a visit to the United States and met security officials ahead of the meeting.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was every indication that the rocket that hit a sports field where children were playing football had been fired by Hezbollah and said Washington stood by Israel's right to defend itself.
But he said the U.S. did not want a further escalation of the conflict, which has seen daily air strikes and exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon.
In the meantime, families gathered for funerals in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
The Druze, an Arab minority who practise a form of Islam, make up more than half the 40,000-strong population of the Golan Heights, and large crowds of mourners, many in traditional high white and red Druze headwear, surrounded the caskets as they were carried through the village.
"We are in difficult moments. A heavy tragedy, a dark day has come to Majdal Shams," said Dolan Abu Saleh, head of the Majdal Shams local council, in comments broadcast on Israeli television.
Hezbollah initially had announced it fired rockets at Israeli military sites in the Golan heights, but denied involvement in the attack on Majdal Shams, saying it had "absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard."
However Israel said the rocket was fired from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, placing the blame squarely on the Iranian-backed group and saying Hezbollah was "unequivocally responsible".
It was not immediately clear if the children and teenagers killed in the strike were Israeli citizens, but Israeli officials have vowed retaliation for the strike.
"The rocket that murdered our boys and girls was an Iranian rocket and Hezbollah is the only terror organization which has those in its arsenal," Israel's foreign ministry said.
Two security sources told Reuters Hezbollah was on high alert and had preemptively cleared out some key sites in both Lebanon's south and the eastern Bekaa Valley in the event of a possible Israeli attack.
Israeli forces have been exchanging fire for months with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon but both sides have appeared to be avoiding an escalation that could lead to an all-out war, potentially dragging in other powers including the United States and Iran.
'CATASTROPHE BEYOND BELIEF'
However Saturday's strike threatened to tip the standoff into a more dangerous phase and United Nations officials urged maximum restraint from both sides, warning that further escalation "could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief."
An Israeli military spokesperson had earlier told reporters that forensics showed the rocket was an Iranian-made Falaq-1. Hezbollah had announced firing a Falaq-1 missile on Saturday, saying it had aimed at an Israeli military headquarters.
The Lebanese government has asked the U.S to urge restraint from Israel, Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib told Reuters. Bou Habib said the U.S. had asked Lebanon's government to pass on a message to Hezbollah to show restraint as well.
Iran's foreign ministry warned Israel on Sunday against what it called any new adventure in Lebanon. However Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, visiting the site of the strike, said: "We will hit the enemy hard."
Syria's foreign ministry said it held Israel "fully responsible for this dangerous escalation in the region" and said its accusations against Hezbollah were false.
A statement from the White House said U.S. support for Israel's security was iron-clad and that it would "continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority". The Blue Line refers to the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
A senior diplomat focused on Lebanon said all efforts were now needed to avoid an all-out war.
The conflict has forced tens of thousands of people in both Lebanon and Israel to leave their homes. Israeli strikes have killed some 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists.
The Israeli military said after Saturday's attack the death toll among civilians killed in Hezbollah attacks had risen to 23 since October, along with at least 17 soldiers.
Hezbollah is the most powerful of a network of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East and started opened a second front against Israel shortly after Hamas' Oct. 7 assault.
Iraqi groups and the Houthis of Yemen have both fired at Israel, which earlier this month attackedthe Red Sea port of Hodeidah in retaliation for a strike on Tel Aviv that killed one person. Hamas has also carried out rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanon, as has the Lebanese Sunni group, the Jama'a Islamiya.
Druze communities live on both sides of the line between southern Lebanon and northern Israel as well as in the Golan Heights and Syria. While some serve in the Israeli military and identify with Israel, many feel marginalized in Israel and some also reject Israeli citizenship.
Reporting by Avi Ohayon and Ammar Awad in Majdal Shams, Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem and Maya Gebeily in Beirut, Editing by William Maclean
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