Israel wants to hit Hezbollah hard but not plunge the Middle East into all-out war, Israeli officials said Monday, as Lebanon braces for Israeli retaliation after a rocket strike killed 12 children and teenagers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, reports Reuters.
Other Israeli sources said Israel was bracing for the possibility of several days of fighting after Saturday's rocket attack on a sports field in a Druze town, which it blamed on the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
"The assessment is that the response will not lead to all-out war," the diplomatic source said. "That would not be in our interest at this stage."
The incident has heightened fears that months of cross-border hostilities between Israel and the heavily armed Hezbollah could escalate into a wider, more destructive war.
On Sunday, Israel's security cabinet authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant to decide how and when to respond to the strike in the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams.
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted unidentified officials as saying the response would be "limited but significant".
The report said options ranged from a limited attack on infrastructure, including bridges, power plants and ports, to attacking Hezbollah weapons depots or targeting Hezbollah commanders.
In a statement released by his office on Monday after visiting Majdal Shams, Netanyahu said: "The State of Israel will not and cannot allow this to go unpunished. Our response will come and it will be harsh."
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a telephone conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday stressed the importance of preventing the escalation of the conflict, the US State Department said.
They discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to allow citizens on both sides of the border to return home, as well as ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there.
The UNIFIL peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said it had stepped up contacts with Israel and Lebanese authorities to reduce tensions. "No one wants to start a wider conflict, but a misjudgment can cause one. There is still room for a diplomatic solution," said UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti.
An Israeli drone killed two Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon on Monday, security sources said. These were the first deaths in Lebanon since Saturday's incident. Three other people, including a baby, were wounded in that strike, according to a Lebanese civil defense official.
The Israeli army said its air defenses shot down a drone that crossed from Lebanon into the Western Galilee region on Monday.
Flights at Beirut International Airport were canceled or delayed as airlines reacted to the possibility of retaliation from Israel.
Both Israel and Hezbollah appear to be trying to avoid full-scale war since they began exchanging blows in October.
Hezbollah denied firing the rocket that killed the youths. On Saturday, it said it fired a missile at a military target in the Golan Heights, a border region that Israel seized from Syria after the 1967 Middle East war and has since annexed in a move not widely recognized internationally.
The Israeli strikes have killed about 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists, according to security and medical sources and Reuters data.
Israel says 23 civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks since October, along with at least 17 soldiers.