Eight seconds that changed the lives of 12 Israeli families forever

Majdal Shams, Golan Heights — At first, the kids thought it was a drone. Dozens of children were playing soccer one Saturday afternoon last July in the Israeli Druze town of Majdal Shams when a Hezbollah rocket came over the mountain that towers over their town. It wasn’t immediately clear what it was, but a warning siren sounded, so the kids ran for their bags on the sidelines en route to the bomb shelter. But the usual 15 seconds of warning was only eight seconds, and it was too little too late. The rocket hit one corner of the field, not far from the shelter, killing 12 children and injuring some 50 more. “The kids, they had no chance whatsoever. Eight seconds,” Rafik Ayoub, who lost his nephew that day, said in an interview this week. The tragedy is one of the best-known flashpoints in Israel’s war with Hezbollah, the terror group that began raining missiles on northern Israel not long after Hamas attacked from the Gaza Strip in the south on October 7, 2023. Israel has since routed Hezbollah, degrading the vast majority of its capability, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. But at the height of the conflict, 80,000 people were evacuated from the north to avoid the relentless descent of rockets. (Another 120,000 were evacuated from the south.) The residents of Majdal Shams decided not to evacuate, along with a neighbouring Jewish kibbutz. The soccer pitch, still very much in use by schoolchildren, has become a regular draw for international media visits and other fact-finding tours. The National Post was part of a group of Canadian journalists touring Israel under the sponsorship of the Exigent Foundation, one of three groups visiting at the time. This is the Golan Heights, part of Syria until Israel seized the region in the 1967 War. The Druze, part of a breakaway sect of Islam, are largely intensely loyal to Israel. Layth Absuleh, who lost his son and three other family members that day, stood by a billboard with heartbreaking photos of the 12 children killed, describing each of them as good students, strong athletes, loving family members. He spoke of individual tragedy too: One boy was directly hit and essentially vaporized, so they thought he was missing until they found his jawbone, and only his jawbone, 17 hours later. A first responder found his daughter dead, and covered her with a blanket before going on to treat the children still living. “It was too late for her,” Abusaleh said through a translator. Ayoub said he is glad Israel neutralized Hezbollah, but he wants the Gaza war to end. “The main thing the parents want is peace, not revenge. This is our culture, this is how we are raised,” Ayoub said. A small corner of the field, the spot where the rocket hit, remains fenced off; Ayoub spoke at a makeshift memorial as children played soccer nearby. Bicycles left behind by the kids that day are untouched. “We’re going to leave this as is,” he said. The village is raising money for a memorial, planning to leave the impact site intact. They also hope to build more athletic facilities for the village’s children. They’ve started a charity, 12 Stars. “We have some really talented kids,” he said.

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