Thousands of mourners gathered in Majdal Shams on Sunday in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for a mass funeral to bid farewell to 11 of the 12 young men who died on Saturday when a missile fired from Lebanon – for which Israel blames Hezbollah – hit the football pitch where they were playing.
“The images of horror will never be erased,” spiritual leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif read at the ceremony, marking the previous day as a “dark Saturday” that will remain “etched in memory as a low point for humanity.” In a square in the heart of the Druze city, thousands of citizens, mostly dressed in black, lined the streets, rooftops and balconies as they passed the 12 white coffins of the dead, aged between 10 and 16.
Some of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ministers who attended the funeral, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Economy Minister Nir Barkat, were booed and insulted by some in attendance. “Get them out of here, we don’t want them,” one man shouted. “You abandoned us for nine months and now you’re here?” another asked.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid and Labor leader Yair Golan also attended the funeral. “The role of the state is to provide security for children. Children should not die in adult wars. The government failed, we apologize to the families,” the centrist leader said.
The attack also left about 30 people injured and taken to various hospitals in the area. Three of them, ages 11, 12 and 14, are still in critical condition at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed. They are sedated and intubated, with abdominal injuries, chest wounds and hip fractures, according to the newspaper. The Times of Israel.
Five other injured youths remain in Rambam hospital in the northern city of Haifa, where they underwent surgery overnight, four of them in intensive care. Thirteen other youths, aged between two and 15, with shrapnel wounds are in moderate condition.
Meanwhile, the search continues for 11-year-old Guevara Ibrahim, who went missing after the attack. The boy is believed to have been on the football pitch when he was hit by a missile fired from Lebanon.
Following the tragedy, Israel said it was time for the world to hold Iran and its allies fully accountable, pointing to Hezbollah, Hamas and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who last weekend attacked Tel Aviv, killing one person.