Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has visited the site of a deadly attack in the annexed Golan Heights, vowed Israel would deliver a “severe response” to the rocket fire that killed 12 children, AFP reports.

“Like all Israeli citizens, and I must say like many around the world, we were deeply shaken by this horrific killing,” Netanyahu said at the site of the attack, according to a statement issued by his office.

“These children are our children … The State of Israel will not, and cannot, let this pass. Our response will come and it will be severe.”

Scores of residents of Majdal Shams protested at Netanyahu’s visit which came after the last of the victim was buried today, with hundreds of Druze men and women gathering for the funeral, an AFP journalist reported.

Many residents of Majdal Shams have not accepted Israeli nationality since Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967.

The 12 children aged between 10 and 16 were killed on Saturday when a rocket fired from Lebanon struck a football pitch in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams where they were playing.