The “Football of Majdal Shams”

Image courtesy of Sam Philipe

Two years ago, on July 27, 2024, Hezbollah terrorists from Lebanon fired an Iranian-made Falaq-1 missile with a 53-kilogram warhead into the upper Golan Druze community of Majdal Shams.

The missile, accidently on purpose, slammed into a soccer pitch where 120 children were playing. Hezbollah killed 12 innocent Druze children, boys and girls, between the ages of 10-16.

Hezbollah took responsibility for the missile attack but not the murders of the children.  They claimed they were aiming a nearby Israeli army facility.  They claimed that an Iron-Dome interceptor had knocked the missile off course to slam into the playground.

The hoped-for terror PR for Hezbollah went very wrong.

Western sources familiar with the type of missile, its guidance system, and targeting knew the Falaq-1 had not been deflected by an Iron-Dome rocket.

The attack on the children was a particularly cruel act directed at the Druze community.  Hezbollah, and Hamas in Gaza, as a matter of soulless policy, deliberately use innocents as human shields. They prefer to hide their machines of death in schools, hospitals, mosques, and apartment residences. The locations are anywhere that a legitimate Israeli response directed back to their firing locations would be immediately grabbed by the press to blame Israel for the response that might kill innocents.

Hezbollah knew what they were doing.

Truth did not matter. Killing innocents and children is perceived as a step towards the Iranian Shite apocalypse.

The slaughter of the innocents at the Majadal Shams soccer pitch shocked the world.  An immediate outpouring of concern, media coverage, some funding, and some quick memorializations.

The children are not forgotten.  The pain of the families is not forgotten.

The 2026 Maccabiah, July 1- July 14, brought thousands of athletes from scores of countries to Israel.  They competed in sporting/cultural events ranging from water polo to competitive ballroom dancing.

Many of the events of the 2026 Maccabiah were symbolically linked back to the trauma of October 7 and the Palestinian Genocide of Jews. For the past two years, the horrors of war have claimed many. Some victims were beyond innocent.

During the opening ceremonies, an attendee wrote, “Also entering onto the field were the families of the 12 Druze children who were murdered in 2024 by a Hezbollah rocket while playing soccer. The families were given the honor to carry the Maccabiah banner into the stadium during the ceremony.”

A year after the missile attack, at the soccer pitch in Majdal Shams a simple memorial of pictures and flowers was initiated.

Recently, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, donated a unique interpretive sculpture of a Giant Football near the still under construction new sports complex near Majdal Shams.  The memorial is designed by famed Jerusalem sculptor Sam Philipe. The Football was pre-dedicated by Mayor Dolan Abu Saleh.

The text on the memorial –  simple: “If tears could build a highway, and memories a lane, I’d walk right up to Heaven and bring you home again.”

An ocean of tears cannot build a highway of memory nor bring them home again.

Nor can an ocean of tears bring back all the victims of the blood thirst of the Palestinians and Iranians since October 7.

A Memorial is a modest way of beginning. The most important way to begin to memorialize is to never forget a single one of their names, any of their names.

The names of the child victims of Hezbollah are:

• Alma Ayman Fakher Eldin, 11
• Milad Muadad Alsha’ar, 10
• Vinees Adham Alsafadi, 11
• Iseel Nasha’at Ayoub, 12
• Yazan Nayeif Abu Saleh, 12
• Johnny Wadeea Ibrahim, 13
• Ameer Rabeea Abu Saleh, 16
• Naji Taher Alhalabi, 11
• Fajer Laith Abu Saleh, 16
• Hazem Akram Abu Saleh, 15
• Nathem Fakher Saeb, 16
• Gevara Ebraheem, 11

Israel has yet to create a proper memorial for October 7.  They have yet to complete a full listing of names that tragically seems to continue to grow.  Maybe someday, the list will be closed, and death and terror will be no more.

Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation

www.JASHP.org