At least 10 people were killed and 20 others wounded in a rocket attack on a football pitch in the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israeli authorities said.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the dead included children and accused the Lebanese group Hezbollah of carrying out Saturday's attack, but the group denied any involvement.
“Our information is clear: Hezbollah is responsible for the murder of innocent children,” Hagari said.
“We will prepare for a response against Hezbollah… we will act,” he said.
On Saturday, Hezbollah quickly denied responsibility for the attack. The group said in a statement that it “categorically denies the accusations spread by certain enemy media outlets and several media platforms regarding the attack on Majdal Shams.”
“The Islamic Resistance has no connection with this incident,” he said, referring to its military wing.
The Iran-aligned group has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces in areas near the Israel-Lebanon border since October 8, when Israel launched its war on Gaza.
The cross-border attacks, which Hezbollah said it had launched in solidarity with the Palestinian people amid Israel's war in Gaza, have raised fears of a wider regional conflagration.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the president would return home early from his trip to the United States, where he met with several senior American officials.
“Immediately after learning of the disaster at Majdal Shams, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that his return to Israel be brought forward as quickly as possible,” Netanyahu’s office said in a post on X.
The Lebanese government in a statement called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts” and condemned attacks against civilians.
Fears of escalation
Reporting from Qatar, Al Jazeera's Hamdah Salhut said Saturday's attack was one of the deadliest incidents since the cross-border fire began and comes amid growing fears of an escalation.
“Hezbollah says it is not their fault, while the Israelis immediately said it was their fault,” he said, adding that neither side wants an all-out war, “but both sides have said they are prepared for it.”
Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, warned that “things could really get out of hand now.”
“It is a dramatic moment. We do not know what will happen next. There is a lot of uncertainty. The next few hours will be decisive,” he told Al Jazeera.
“I don't see Israel ignoring this incident.”
Political analyst Ori Goldberg said he believed the attack was unlikely to lead to an “all-out war” between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Neither side wants a total war, that has been made very clear,” he told Al Jazeera, noting that the attack took place on Israel’s periphery, not in its heartland. “I don’t think this is enough to lead us to a total war,” he said.
The attack on the football field followed an Israeli strike in Lebanon that killed four fighters on Saturday.
Two security sources in Lebanon said the four fighters killed in the Israeli attack on Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon were members of different armed groups, with at least one of them belonging to Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck a military structure belonging to Hezbollah after identifying fighters entering the building.
Hezbollah claimed to have carried out at least four attacks, including with Katyusha rockets, in retaliation for the Kfar Kila attacks.
The Golan Heights, a 1,200-square-kilometre (463-square-mile) plateau, is Syrian territory that Israel occupied in 1967 after the Six-Day War, before annexing it in 1981, a move unanimously condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
Many residents in the territory are Syrian Druze, some of whom have Israeli citizenship.
