11-Year-Old Druze Girl Regains Consciousness After Majdal Shams Rocket Attack

Jerusalem, 14 August, 2024 (TPS) -- An 11-year-old Israeli Druze girl injured in a deadly Hezbollah rocket attack regained consciousness, the Rambam Hospital in Haifa announced on Wednesday.

“The girl improved quickly and surprised the doctors, her condition is now classified as moderate,” the hospital said.

According to the hospital, the girl was hit in the head by shrapnel and will be hospitalized for several more days.

Rambam added that another 12-year-old boy who was lightly injured is expected to be discharged in the next few days.

Twelve children were killed and dozens more were injured when a rocket fired by Hezbollah struck a soccer field in the Israeli Druze village of Majdal Shams in July.

The attack cast a spotlight on the Golan Druze community. The younger generation has been quietly integrating into Israeli society, a trend that accelerated with the Syrian Civil War.

The Druze living in the Galilee and Mount Carmel areas sided with the Jews in 1948 during Israel’s War of Independence, opting to be part of Israeli society and establishing themselves in all areas of public life. The bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the “covenant of blood.”

But when Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, the Golan Druze refused Israeli offers of citizenship, believing Syria would recapture the plateau.

The Druze communities of Israel, Lebanon and Syria regard themselves as descendants of the Biblical Jethro –who they call Shuaib — the father-in-law of Moses. They speak Arabic but are not Muslim.

Israel responded with an airstrike killing Fuad Shukr, who was responsible for the launch. A member of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, the terror group’s highest decision-making body on military affairs, Shukr was regarded as Hezbollah’s “Defense Minister” and right-hand man to Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

The Iran-backed terror group has vowed to avenge Shukr’s death.

Nearly 80,000 Israelis were forced to evacuate their homes near the Lebanon border when Hezbollah began launching rockets and drones in October. Hezbollah leaders have said they will continue the attacks to prevent Israelis from returning to their homes. The attacks have killed 26 civilians and 18 soldiers on the Israeli side.

Israeli officials have been calling for Hezbollah to be disarmed and removed from southern Lebanon in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.