Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday of a harsh response to the Hezbollah strike that killed 12 children, amid calls by the international community for restraint from both parties and the scramble to prevent a third Lebanon war.“Our response will come and it will be severe,” Netanyahu said during a visit Monday to the Druze village in the Golan Heights that came under attack on Saturday.“The State of Israel will not, and cannot, ignore this,” he stated.Late Sunday, the security cabinet spent over three hours debating a response to the Hezbollah attack, authorizing Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to take action.The United States is leading a diplomatic dash to deter Israel from striking Lebanon’s capital Beirut or major civil infrastructure in response to a deadly rocket attack on the Golan Heights, five people with knowledge of the drive said.Lebanon’s deputy parliament speaker Elias Bou Saab, who said he had been in contact with US mediator Amos Hochstein since Saturday’s Golan attack, told Reuters Israel could avert the threat of major escalation by sparing the capital and its environs.“If they avoid civilians and they avoid Beirut and its suburbs, then their attack could be well calculated,” he said.
An Iranian official said the United States had also conveyed messages to Tehran at least three times since Saturday’s attack on the Golan Heights, “warning that escalating the situation would be detrimental to all parties.”US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said on Monday that “there is still time and space for diplomacy… Israel has every right to defend itself, and our support for their security is ironclad. That support continues. No nation should have to live with the threats that the Israeli people are having to live with – right next door.”That being said, Kirby told reporters in Washington, there is no reason why the weekend attack should lead to an all-out war.
The focus now is on diplomacy and not “on a military solution.” There is no focus on a military solution that “involves directly the United States military,” he added.
'These children are our children'
Gallant on Monday spoke with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and explained that the rocket used was an Iranian one, equipped with 50 kilograms of explosives, as he described how Saturday’s attack posed a significant escalation.The UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon said it had intensified contacts with Israel and Lebanese authorities to dial down tensions. “Nobody wants to start a wider conflict, but a miscalculation could trigger one. There is still space for a diplomatic solution,” spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said.Flights at Beirut’s International Airport were canceled or delayed throughout the day. Jordan’s flag carrier Royal Jordanian suspended flights to Beirut on Monday and Tuesday, Jordanian TV reported, citing a statement from the airline.Netanyahu in Majdal Shams blamed Iran for the attack, explaining that Hezbollah had acted with “Iranian backing” and launched an Iranian-made missile that struck the children as they played soccer. Community leader.He traveled to the Golan Heights with Druze religious leader Sheikh Muafak Tarif and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar. There, he met with Majdal Shams local council head Dolan Abu Sales and Ein Qiniyye Regional Council head Wael Mugrabi.“We came here today to Majdal Shams… in order to express our deep solidarity, and our profound shock over the atrocity that took place here. This is a terrible tragedy,” Netanyahu told the community.“Like all citizens of Israel, and I must tell you, like many people across the entire world, we were profoundly shocked by this terrible killing,” Netanyahu stated.“The heart breaks at the terrible tragedy. We embrace the families that are now enduring indescribable suffering.“These children are our children; they are the children of us all,” Netanyahu said, as he recalled that the Druze community had paid a heavy price during the last nine months of cross-border IDF-Hezbollah violence. He also pointed to the lives lost on both Israel’s northern and southern fronts.“We are brothers. We have a covenant of life, but unfortunately, it is also a covenant for moments of bereavement and grief,” Netanyahu stated.He urged the Druze community not to be “disheartened. Do not lose hope” in the face of attacks by the “evil axis of Iran and Hezbollah.“The State of Israel will continue to stand by your side, here, and in the entire region, today, tomorrow, and forever,” he stated.Angry spectators, upset by the lack of security along that northern area, chanted that Netanyahu was a “killer” and called on him to “go home.”Reuters contributed to this report.