We have breaking news tonight out of the Middle east where israeli officials are vowing to respond after a deadly strike in the Golan Heights. Responders saying at least eleven people were killed, including children, when rockets fired from Lebanon hit a football field. We spoke with former israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett last hour. He said both Hezbollah and Lebanon have effectively declared war on Israel, and Israel must now respond accordingly.

The state of Lebanon essentially shot a rocket made in Iran. We know the name of the guy who shot it. His name is Ali Mahmoud Yichya. These rockets were made in Iran. Iranian rockets, 50 warhead. And it's time that we hit back.

Jeremy diamond is on the ground for us where this strike hit. Jeremy, we see it behind you there. You hearing about all of this.

You know, Jessica, we arrived on the scene and the mood is very, very heavy here. The israeli military now says that twelve people were killed, and these are all children and young adults between the ages of ten and 20. Several dozen more were injured, some of them in very serious condition at local hospitals. But this is the deadliest incident since October 7 on civilians since the beginning of this conflict, according to the israeli military. And there are now very real concerns that this could trigger a broader escalation in this conflict. But before we get to that, I do want to bring in Taimur here, who actually lives right across from this soccer field where this strike actually happened. Taimur. You were nearby, you heard the sirens and you actually saw this rocket hit right here?

Yeah, I did. I live about 50 meters across from the playground on the fourth floor, so I have a direct view of what happened here. I was just sitting on my desk. I got my notification, and like 2 seconds later, maybe less, I heard the sirens. I just rushed to the window. Not even four to five milliseconds. I opened the window, I was just looking straight. I saw it hit. I thought I saw the kids panicking, running around. And that happened around 618 pm, something like that. And I just rushed straight here. I got here like two minutes later and that's when I arrived to the scene. And I had like a clear vision of the impact and of the crater zone. So that's what I saw.

And so you heard the warning sirens telling you that rockets were coming in, but it was just seconds?

No, there's not enough time. It's impossible if someone tells you otherwise. It's impossible even possible to get to. No, it's just four to 5 seconds. What can you do in four to 5 seconds? You can do nothing. It like, is it like if I'm saying 5 seconds. Maybe I'm just. It's too long. I think it's 4 seconds, maybe less. Like the sirens were still going on. That's when we heard, I heard the impact and I saw it and I saw the kids, like, you know, you're talking about kids and children here. There's also. They have reaction time. They're panicking. They're going to stress. They need much more time than that. Even if you have 5 seconds and you're completely aware of the situation, you wouldn't have enough time to react.

And so, so once you saw that rocket actually hit you, you came here, you came to the scene.

Yeah, I did.

And what, what did, what did you see?

Well, at first, I saw the injured, injured children running around. I saw blood. They didn't respond to us. They were panicking. I saw a lot of guys gathering here. Most of them didn't go down. I went down here and I saw a lot of things that are way too gruesome to mention out of respect for the families. And we tried to help, but it was beyond our help, like, there's nothing we can do.

There were injuries that you saw that were too gruesome, too critical for any medical attention to be given.

There's nothing you can do? No, I will not go into details, but there's nothing you can do.

And this area around 06:00 p.m. you know, it's summer.

Yeah, it's summer. Kids are playing. And we kind of got used to the situation because it's been going on for a while. We hear sirens all the time and we just got used to it. Nothing like this ever happened before.

And tell me about this community. I mean, when we came out here, everyone is around. Everyone is still up. It's very late at night, it's two in the morning, but everyone is still up. Everybody must feel very impacted. It's a very close knit community, of course.

I mean, if you look around, everybody is helping, trying to prepare for the ceremony for the funeral tomorrow. And because everybody knows everybody, and everybody is related to someone, and we know the kids, we know the children, all the families is well connected. So we stand together in good or in bad, and this is what's happening right now. It's a dark day for our town. It's a tragedy that hit us all. And this day will be remembered for generations to come, and it will go down in history. This is the most, and not just in our town, in the whole of the country. As you said, it's the deadliest attack since the 7 October, and it happened in our small village.

What is the feeling around here? Obviously, there's sadness. Is there anger as well with that? And where is that anger being directed?

I don't know where the assets, I mean, this anger is directed at the war in general, because in war, no one is winning. We're all losing. And the longer it goes on, the more we're going to lose, and we're helpless. There's not much that we can do. But I think there should be a response for what happened here today. And we will not go quiet until we get a response for what happened here, because these are our children. These our children, you know, and what happened here is unforgettable. Like, just look at it. There's just kids playing soccer, playing football here, and they didn't need look at the shelter. It's only like few meters away. But I'm quite sure they didn't have enough time to get there. Even if they were, they acted, like instantly there was not enough time.

Yeah. Thank you so much, Taymor. Jessica, I do, I do want to bring you closer to the scene here because this is where you can see this crater. Right here is where that rocket actually struck. The israeli military says that this was an iranian made rocket that they say is only in Hezbollah's arsenal. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for this attack, but the israeli military says that they are clear that this was Hezbollah that carried out this attack. They say that the rocket was fired from a village in southern Lebanon, and they say that this was an iranian war rocket, forgive me, that had a 50 kilo warhead attached to it. You can also see behind here there are bicycles. This scene is effectively frozen in time from the moment when this strike happened. And just to bring you over to this side, have my cameraman, Hofsep pan around. You can see how close this is. That cinder block building right there is a safe space. That is where you rush to when you hear those sirens. And so, just so devastating to see how close these children were to that shelter. But obviously, with just a few seconds, to be able to try and rush into there once they heard those sirens, was simply, simply not enough.

And the result now, twelve people, according to the israeli military, who are dead between the ages of ten and 20, and an entire community here that is absolutely devastated, Jessica.

It is truly, truly devastating news, Jeremy, and clearly just so heartbreaking for that whole community and these children who are just playing soccer to be targeted in that way. We know that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still in the US when this happened. He cut his trip short. Hes now headed back, were told hell be convening with his war cabinet upon his arrival. What are you hearing about how the government might be responding to this?

Well, there was a very swift response from a number of government officials, all of them making very clear that there will be a response for this attack, a very serious response at that. The israeli prime minister himself said that I can say that the state of Israel will not be silent about this. We will not put this off the agenda. BeNny Gantz, a former member of the war cabinet, a member of the opposition. Now, he came to Majdul Shams this evening to meet with community leaders, and he was also making very clear that not only will there be a response, but that the israeli government will have his support as a member of the opposition for a decisive response in Lebanon. And that really is now the big question. There have been fears not only in Israel but also in the us government, that an incident like this one with so many casualties, notably civilian casualties, and in this case, many of them being children, that an incident like this could potentially set off a very dangerous escalation, potentially lead to war. And that is certainly the question now, is whether or not the escalation, the response from Israel will be so severe that it could lead to that all out conflict with Hezbollah, that all out war with Hezbollah that so many have feared.

At this hour, it is too premature to say whether or not that will happen. What is clear is that we've been hearing, hearing the sounds of jets buzzing above us. We are very close to the lebanese border here. It is clear that the israeli military will respond to this attack, which they say was carried out by Hezbollah. How severe that response will be will determine the course of things. We'll determine what the counter reaction from Hezbollah will be and will determine whether or not we are headed for a very, very dangerous and deadly path, Jessica.

Jeremy diamond live from Golan Heights with new reporting there. Thank you so much for that.