Israel's security cabinet has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defense Minister authority to decide when and how to retaliate for deadly rocket attacks that Israel and the United States claim were carried out by the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The ministers held an emergency meeting after an airstrike on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Saturday evening killed 12 children and teenagers from the Druze community. Hezbollah denied responsibility.
It was the deadliest incident in months of cross-border gunfire between the two sides.
The attack has raised concerns that the previously relatively contained hostilities could escalate into an all-out war.
Western governments are urging Israel to show restraint.
The White House said it had been in “ongoing discussions with our Israeli and Lebanese counterparts” following the horrific attack on a stadium in the Druze-populated city of Majdal Shams.
He said he was seeking a diplomatic solution that would end all attacks along the Blue Line, the unofficial border between Israel and Lebanon.
An Israeli drone strike killed two people on Monday morning outside the Lebanese town of Shakra, about 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from the Israeli border, Lebanese state media reported. Israel did not comment on the report.
Meanwhile, Air France has become the latest airline to suspend flights to Beirut amid growing expectations of Israeli retaliation. Lufthansa, Swiss International Air Lines and Eurowings have also suspended flights.
The funerals of the young victims took place in Majdal Shams on Sunday amid vivid scenes of grief, with thousands of people turning out as white-clad coffins were carried through the town.
The attack has hit hardest on the Druze community, which has lived in the Golan Heights for centuries. They are part of an Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious group based in Lebanon, Syria, the Golan Heights and northern Israel.
The people of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have been under Israeli rule since Israel captured the area from Syria in the 1967 war, but many remain loyal to Syria. About 21,000 people live on the rugged plateau, and about 20 percent have accepted Israeli citizenship.
The attack in Mazdal Shams has sparked outrage across Israel and among the Druze community, which numbers about 110,000.
Mr Netanyahu cut short a visit to the United States to return to Israel after the airstrikes. He met with defense officials before convening his security cabinet on Sunday.
After hours of meetings, the Prime Minister's Office issued a brief statement saying only that “Cabinet members have empowered the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister to decide how and when to respond to the Hezbollah terrorist group.”
In a condolence call to Sheikh Muafak Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israel's Druze community, Netanyahu said Hezbollah “will pay a price greater than it has ever paid before.”
Hezbollah has strongly denied being behind the attack and has reportedly blamed a failed Israeli interceptor missile for the bloodshed.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “know exactly where the rockets were launched from,” Israeli military chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said in a statement on Sunday.
General Halevi identified it as an unguided surface-to-surface Falaq rocket with a 53-kilogram warhead. “This is a Hezbollah rocket. And whoever launches such a rocket into a built-up area wants to kill civilians, wants to kill children,” he said.
Sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on October 7 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions, a day after Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel. Hezbollah says it is acting in support of the Palestinians.
