NEW YORK – On Saturday, Hezbollah launched a rocket into Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, killing 12 children and teenagers playing on a soccer field. Rabbinic human rights organization T’ruah condemned the terror attack and mourned the young people whose lives were lost. T’ruah urged the U.S. and international community to intervene to avoid further escalation and loss of life.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T’ruah, said:
“We condemn this horrific attack. Our hearts go out to the victims’ families and to the entire community of Majdal Shams. All children — no matter who they are or where they live — have the right to live and play without fear of deadly violence. We also mourn the Israeli killed today by a Hezbollah rocket in the Galilee. Deliberately targeting civilians is a war crime.
“Israel has already responded by targeting the Hezbollah commander responsible for the attacks. We urge the U.S. and international community to intervene and use diplomatic means to avoid war and restore calm to the region, so that the approximately 60,000 Israelis who have been evacuated from the North can return to their homes, as can the some 100,000 Lebanese evacuated from their homes near the border.
“Maimonides wrote that war should never be waged without first offering peace (Hilkhot Melachim 6:1). The prospect of all-out war with Hezbollah, which has a stockpile of approximately 150,000 missiles and rockets — including many with the ability to hit targets throughout Israel — is in no one’s interests. A wider regional war would be devastating for both Israel and Lebanon and lead to further turmoil and death in the region.
“It comes as no surprise that Majdal Shams residents protested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich when they visited the area after the attack. Netanyahu’s extremist coalition has not only continually marginalized non-Jewish groups, including the Druze community, but has also unnecessarily dragged out a war that has no winners, and that has already brought too much death and suffering to everyone in the region — including those directly in the line of fire from Hezbollah, which claims its rockets are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
“Finally, we are relieved by reports that Netanyahu has reversed his decision to delay the evacuation of hundreds of injured and sick children from Gaza to the U.A.E. for treatment due to the strike in Majdal Shams. This delay never should have taken place. It is unconscionable to treat children, whether they live in Gaza, Israel, or the Golan Heights, as pawns of war. It is clear that we urgently need a negotiated ceasefire in Gaza, to ease the suffering of Palestinians, to free the hostages, and to ensure calm in the region.”
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T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights brings the Torah’s ideals of human dignity, equality, and justice to life by empowering our network of over 2,300 rabbis and cantors to be moral voices and to lead Jewish communities in advancing democracy and human rights for all people in the United States, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.