Gaza live: Concerns about all-out regional war rise following Golan Heights deadly attack

Israeli forces are calling Palestinians in central Gaza, including in Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, and telling them to leave their homes, according to Al-Jazeera. The areas had previously been marked as a safe zone. 

The areas are overcrowded, with most people there having already been displaced from elsewhere. Many are remaining put, according to Al-Jazeera, stating they have nowhere else to go. 

Lebanon's Middle East Airlines (MEA) said in a statement that it had delayed the return of some flights from Sunday night to Monday morning. It did not give a reason.

The statement comes after Israel vowed swift retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon after 12 children and teenagers were killed by a rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah denies involvement in the attack.

Fears of a wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah have reached their highest point in months following a deadly rocket strike on Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights.

The attack on a football field in the Syrian Druze village on Saturday killed at least 12 children, with several others seriously wounded.

Israeli and American officials said that Hezbollah was responsible for the attack. The Lebanese armed group has denied involvement. 

“Saturday’s massacre constitutes the crossing of all red lines by Hezbollah,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said following the attack. “This is not an army fighting another army, rather it is a terrorist organisation deliberately shooting at civilians.”

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Hezbollah would face consequences “even with its ridiculous denials”.

In Majdal Shams, thousands of people attended the funeral of the children killed in the rocket attack.

Residents of the town, many of whom have refused Israeli citizenship, kicked out several Israeli politicians from the funeral, including members of the Israeli parliament and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Read more: Israel-Lebanon tensions intensify after deadly Majdal Shams rocket strike

France has condemned the rocket attack in the Syrian Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and called on all parties to exercise restraint.

"France condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack which hit the Druze community in Majdal Shams," the French foreign ministry said a statement on Sunday.

"France demands that everything possible be done to avoid a new military escalation and we will continue work with the relevant parties on this."

Paris added it was continuing to advise its citizens not to go to Lebanon, Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories.

Hezbollah is on high alert, two security sources have told Reuters, amid rising tensions after a deadly attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that Israel blamed on the Lebanese group.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the attack.

The security sources said Hezbollah had pre-emptively cleared out key sites in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley in the event of a possible Israeli attack.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that he does not want to see an escalation after Israel accused Hezbollah of killing 12 children and teenagers in a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hezbollah denies involvement in the attack.

Israel said on Sunday it would strike hard against the Lebanese group following the incident. Blinken said Washington was in talks with Israel about the incident.

In a column for Middle East Eye, attorney Djaouida Siaci writes that Palestinian women are amongst the most vulnerable in Gza, with pregnant women in particular facing life-threatening challenges to accessing care. 

She writes: "Since 7 October, the assault on Palestinian women’s rights and dignity has taken on new and terrifying dimensions as thousands have become victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and an unfolding genocide.

The crime of genocide has a gender perspective.  Men and boys are killed, while women and girls are subjected to a wider range of violations over a longer period. While the atrocities in Gaza affect both men and women, their impact is gendered and disproportionately affects women.

As they attempt to come to terms with their grief and injuries - with the loss of their children, husbands, parents, relatives, homes, and livelihoods – Palestinian women and girls have been living in an utter and deep horror." 

You can read the column below. 

Opinion: How Israel is stripping Palestinian women of their dignity

Lebanon's government has asked the US to urge restraint from Israel, Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib has told Reuters. 

It comes as tensions build following an attack that killed 12 children and teenagers in Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

Israel blamed Hezbollah for the attack and vowed swift retaliation. The Lebanese group denies involvement. 

Bou Habib said Washington had asked the Lebanese government to pass on a message to Hezbollah to also show restraint. 

Gaza's health ministry said that 66 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the enclave in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 39,324 people killed since 7 October.

Additionally, 90,830 have been wounded since the start of the war.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

here are the latest updates:

• At least eight Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Khan Younis since the morning, the Wafa news agency reports
• The death toll from the rocket attack on Majdal Shams, occupied Golan Heights has risen to 12 Druze children, with three children in serious condition being treated at a hospital in Safed, northern Israel
• Thousands have headed to Majdal Shams to attend the funeral for those killed
• While Hezbollah denies responsibility for the attack, Israeli officials have insisted on attributing the blame to the Lebanese group, accusing it of having "crossed all red lines"
• Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says they will ensure Hezbollah "pays a price for this loss"
• Israel's security cabinet will meet at 18:00 local time (16:00 British Summer Time) to discuss their response to Hezbollah

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Israel says that at least 10 children and youngsters have been killed, and 19 others were injured in a missile attack that hit a football pitch in the occupied Golan Height’s village of Majdal Shams, where around 25,000 Druze live
• The Israeli army blamed the Lebanese Hezbollah for the attack, which it said has been carried out from the southern Lebanese village of Shebaa, and the group denies any involvement in the incident
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country will not remain silent and security cabinet will convene upon his return from the US
• The US condemned the attack and said its support to Israel against Hezbollah is ‘Iron-clad’
• The Lebanese government issued a rare statement calling  for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all fronts.
• The attack raises fears of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, who have been exchanging cross-border fire since the start of the war in Gaza
• Palestinian Health authorities names two Palestinians killed in a rare Israeli aerial raid against Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank’s city of Nablus.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would convene the security cabinet for an urgent meeting once he returns from his US visit.

"The State of Israel will not remain silent. We will not allow this to be put on the agenda," he said in a statement.

He added that continuous defence consultations have been held to discuss the attack on a football pitch in the Majdal Shams village, located in the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel says has been launched from Lebanon and killed more than 10 children and youngsters.

The European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called for a “independent international investigation into this unacceptable incident” after a missile hit a football pitch in Majdal Shams, in the occupied Golan Heights.

“I strongly condemn this bloodbath,” Borrell said on X.

The White House said that the attack on a football pitch in the Majdal Shams village in the occupied Golan Heights, which killed 11 youngsters, is “horrific,” expressing full support for Israel.

“Our support for Israel’s security is iron-clad and unwavering against all Iranian backed terrorist groups, including Lebanese Hezbollah,” said a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council in a statement.

Israel has blamed the Lebanese Hezbollah for carrying out the attack, stating that a rocket was launched from the southern Lebanese village od Sheba, which is located on the borders between Lebanon and the occupied Golan Heights.

But the Lebanese group denied any involvement in the attack in the village, where around 25,000 Druze people live.

 “Hezbollah will pay a heavy price, the kind it has thus far not paid,” the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the leader of the Druze community in Israel in a phone call, according to a statement from his office.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese government has called for an end of all hostilities on all fronts.