The Japan Times - Rocket kills 10 in annexed Golan amid Israel-Hezbollah flare-up

The 10 were killed when a rocket hit a football pitch in the Arab town of Majdal Shams, where many residents retain Syrian nationality decades after the territory's occupation in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Magen David Adom said.

The rocket fire came after an Israeli strike killed four Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon prompting the Iran-backed militant group to announce a flurry of retaliatory rocket attacks against the Golan and northern Israel.

Magen David Adom reported 10 dead and 19 wounded after the rocket hit on the town of Majdal Shams.

The Israeli army said Hezbollah fired the deadly rocket.

"The Hezbollah terrorist organization is behind the rocket launch at a soccer field in Majdal Shams," the army said in a statement.

But the Iran-backed militant group denied it was responsible.

"The Islamic Resistance has no connection to this incident," it said, referring to its military wing.

The police and the army said rockets had struck multiple locations in the Golan, including Majdal Shams.

Ambulances, helicopters and mobile intensive care units were deployed to the site, the army said.

"We arrived at a football pitch and saw destruction and objects on fire. Injured people were lying on the grass," paramedic Idan Avshalom said in a statement issued by Magen David Adom.

An AFP correspondent saw medics carrying away the wounded for treatment.

"Officers and police bomb disposal experts from the northern district police are currently securing the area and searching for additional (rocket) remnants to eliminate any further risk to the public," the police said in a separate statement.

The rocket fire came after a Lebanese security source said an Israeli strike killed four Hezbollah fighters in the southern village of Kfar Kila.

Hezbollah, which has exchanged near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since the Gaza war erupted last October, confirmed the deaths of four of its fighters.

It said it carried out a dozen retaliatory attacks on Israeli targets, nine in the space of two hours.

Hezbollah has been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire with the Israeli army since the Gaza war erupted last October.

S.Ogawa--JT