Mourners heckle Israeli ministers at funerals of 12 children killed by Hezbollah rockets
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Israeli ministers were met with jeers and heckles at the funerals of 12 children killed in a suspected Hezbollah rocket attack on Saturday.
The attack on Saturday evening on a football field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was the deadliest on Israeli civilians since fighting broke out between Israel and Iranian-backed groups Hamas and Hezbollah in October. It also left dozens of children injured.
Israel and the US pointed the finger at Hezbollah, which has been trading near daily fire with Israeli soldiers since Oct 7, an accusation Hezbollah denies.
On Sunday, thousands of mourners who were at the funeral in northern Israel’s Majdal Shams condemned the arrival of government ministers, whom they had told to stay away.
They accuse them of having long abandoned their community and were only going to the funeral to exploit it for political gain.
Nir Barkat, housing minister, Idit Silman, environmental protection minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the controversial Right-wing finance minister, were subjected to abuse and jeers as they arrived.
Some shouted at Mr Smotrich, an advocate for war with Lebanon, “leave here”, while also hurling profanities at him.
Before the football pitch was hit on Saturday evening, Hezbollah had announced it had fired rockets at Israeli military sites, but swiftly denied involvement in the attack, saying it had “absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard”.
Eleven of the 12 children killed were named by Arabic and Hebrew media on Sunday morning.
The victims were: Alma Ayman Fakher Eldin, 11; Milad Muadad Alsha’ar, 10; Vinees Adham Alsafadi, 11; Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub, 12; Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh, 12; Johnny Wadeea Ibrahim, 13; Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh, 16; Naji Taher Alhalabi, 11; Fajer Laith Abu Saleh, 16; Hazem Akram Abu Saleh, 15; and Nathem Fakher Saeb, 16.
The 12th victim was later named as 11-year-old Jifara Ibrahim.
He was initially recorded as missing, after his body was not immediately recovered after the blast. His family’s worst fears were confirmed on Sunday evening following testing of body parts found at the football field.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said that the rocket which killed the 12 children was an Iranian-made Falaq-1 with a warhead of over 110 pounds of explosives.
Residents and first responders said the warning siren had sounded too late for the victims to flee.
One witness, who was not identified by name, spoke of gruesome scenes as they started scooping up body parts in the aftermath.
“The children were playing, they came to have fun and enjoy themselves,” the witness told Haaretz.
“I started picking up scattered body parts. Children whose bodies were flung (into the air). The explosion shredded them to pieces.”
Prof Salman Zarka, director of Ziv Medical Center in Safed, told Channel 12 that 30 injured children arrived in the immediate aftermath of the attack, 15 of whom were still in hospital as of Sunday evening.
“Sadly, we are used to mass casualty events, but it’s children. It’s a massive tragedy for the area,” added Prof Zarka.
Fahid Safadi, a Masada Regional Council member, said he was at a nearby supermarket when the rocket hit.
“I heard the explosion, everything shook. I stepped outside the supermarket where I was and saw in front of me the horrors. Screaming, crying, people running. An image that will remain with my soul for a lifetime. I don’t expect Israel to react strongly – this is neither Jewish blood nor the blood of the residents of Tel Aviv, ” he told the Walla news site.
Photos from the scene show the pitch in a state of disrepair – blown out, twisted pieces of fence, chunks of torn astroturf, abandoned bicycles and broken scooters.
At the funeral on Sunday afternoon, thousands of mourners packed the town of Majdal Shams as small, plain caskets, draped with white cloth and a few bunches of flowers, were carried through the crowd.
Men were dressed in the community’s traditional white hats with red tops, while women wore shawls and wept. Some carried large photos of the children.
“Our community is very close-knit. These children are like the children of everybody in the village,” Fadi Mahmud, 48, said.
As politicians ignored calls for them to stay away, sorrow gave way to anger.
One man wearing a military uniform shouted at Mr Barkat and Mr Silman.
“Now you come here? Ten months you didn’t come!” he said to applause.
The source of their rage was the fear that the tragedy would be exploited for personal and political gain.
Yasser Gadban, chairman of the Forum of Druze and Circassian Authorities, had written to the government saying: “We ask all government representatives, ministers and senior officers, do not come. Due to the sensitivity of the situation, we ask that you not turn a massacre event into a political event. We are requesting a quiet, religious funeral in accordance with Druze custom.”
Top Israeli government officials have drawn flak from families of Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on Oct 7, as being indifferent to their suffering and the plight of the victims. Protests have been happening almost daily for their return and for Netanyahu to step down.
On Sunday, Yoav Gallant, defence minister, visited the site of the strike and said: “We will hit the enemy hard,” raising fears of a wider Middle East war.
Mr Smotrich tweeted: “For the deaths of little children, [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah should pay with his head,” adding that it is “time for action”. He said: “Lebanon as a whole has to pay the price.”
Iran’s foreign ministry warned Israel against what it called any new adventure in Lebanon.
Hamas’s massacre of 1,200 civilians on Oct 7 and Israel’s vicious response in Gaza has tested the patience and political capital of Israel’s strongest allies, Britain and the US. The Democrat Party, especially, is trying to win back the many voters it has lost due to its support for Israel, ahead of the election in November.
Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, 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 US did not want a further escalation of the conflict.
David Lammy, UK foreign minister, said Hezbollah must cease its attacks on Israel and that Britain was “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation and destabilisation”.
For the mourners on Sunday, no amount of retribution will ease their pain.
“It’s a Saturday that will be engraved in memory as a low point in humanity, the killing of children. The scenes of horror will never be erased,” said Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, Druze spiritual leader.
