One teen killed, others wounded, after explosion on Israeli school trip near Lebanon border

One teenager was killed and others were wounded, according to Israeli emergency response services, after an explosion on an Israeli school trip near the Lebanon border.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said an initial review by soldiers at the scene indicated that explosion was caused by an unexploded Hezbollah munition that had fallen in the area. It’s unclear when the projectile was fired. Pictures released by the IDF showed a military helicopter evacuating patients for medical treatment.

“Apparently, the suspicion is that an unexploded munition of some kind exploded in the hands of one of the students,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Meir Eliyahu, a commander in Israel’s northern district, according to Reuters.

According to United Hatzalah, an Israeli emergency response service, three people sustained serious injuries in the explosion, while at least 10 others suffered light-to-moderate injuries. The wounded were evacuated to three hospitals in the area, police said.

In a statement, the Ma’alot-Tarshiha municipality in northern Israel said students and staff were on the local school’s annual trip when the explosion happened. The country’s Ministry of Education said it was an “extremely difficult incident, and our thoughts are with the victims and their families.” Commissioner Daniel Levy told Reuters it was a “very serious incident, in which children who went on a field trip were hurt, to our sorrow.”

On Monday evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with Israel’s education minister, visited the wounded and their families at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. Netanyahu instructed the IDF to reinforce the prohibitions against touching unexploded ordinance.

Shortly after the explosion occurred on Monday afternoon, Israel Police said the initial suspicion was that the explosion was a result of an unexploded munition along the border near the villages of Yiftah and Manara. Bomb disposal experts were dispatched to examine the cause of the explosion, police said.

MDA said it was a “complex incident” as they sent numerous teams to the site. “We quickly dispatched substantial forces to the scene, including ambulances, mobile intensive care units (MICUs), and an MDA helicopter, which was also scrambled to the incident,” said regional director Itzik Shushan.

A US-brokered ceasefire in late-June was supposed to end months of conflict in southern Lebanon as it paved the way for the deployment of the Lebanese military and the gradual withdrawal of the IDF. Israel pulled back from two small areas along the so-called yellow line that demarcates the zone occupied by the Israeli military, but further progress on the agreement has largely stalled.

Israel has razed entire villages in southern Lebanon and has continued to carry out regular strikes there as it tries to remove Hezbollah from the territory.