Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday with victims of the detonation of an unexploded Hezbollah cluster munition in northern Israel earlier that same day, according to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The explosion, which killed a 14-year-old boy and injured 24 others, occured during a field trip for ORT Ma’alot Yeshiva High School students.
One of the victims being treated at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus, 14-year-old student Eitan Masouri, described his experience to the prime minister, who was joined at the hospital by Education Minister Yoav Kisch.
“I realized I was hurt; I saw that a friend was injured, and I tried to help him,” said Masouri, who was injured by shrapnel in his neck.
Masouri told Netanyahu that one of his fellow students was handling the unexploded Hezbollah ordnance before it detonated.
Israel Police Commissioner Daniel Levi alongside senior officers after unexploded Hezbollah ordnance detonated in northern Israel, October 12, 2026. (credit: Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit)
“He unscrewed it, and then it exploded; the guys were thrown back,” explained Masouri. “There was a moment of shock, about two seconds, and then I was told I was bleeding. I realized I was bleeding from my neck.”
Masouri’s account follows a preliminary investigation by the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority, which showed evidence that one of the students put the Hezbollah cluster munition into his bag, which later detonated.
Education Ministry: All group trips to area to be diverted over next two days
Also on Monday, the Education Ministry announced that group trips to the area along the Israel-Lebanon border on Tuesday and Wednesday would be diverted elsewhere.
“Groups currently traveling in these areas are instructed to leave their routes and move to alternative routes in coordination with the Education Ministry’s travel center,” the ministry stated. “In the rest of the country, trips will take place as usual.”
The ministry added that it had “sharpened” safety guidelines “with an emphasis on caution against munitions throughout the country.”
President Herzog, Yashar’s Eisenkot respond to explosion incident
Several Israeli politicians reacted to the explosion, with Israeli President Isaac Herzog calling the incident a “horrific disaster” in an X/Twitter post on Monday.
“A student who left his home for a trip with his classmates, for a day of experiences amid the landscapes of our country, and will not return to his family’s embrace,” he wrote. “This is part of the heavy and painful price of the complex security reality in which Israel finds itself, one that leaves its marks even in places where our children should be protected and safe, free to wander, discover, and rejoice.”
Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot also responded to the explosion earlier on Monday, saying in an X post that his “heart is with the family of the deceased, the injured, and their families.”
He added that he is praying “together with all Israeli citizens for the swift recovery of the injured.”
Shir Perets contributed to this report.