Israeli officials say they want to avoid an all-out war in retaliation for Lebanon By Reuters

Written by Maayan Lubell and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT – Israel wants to hurt Hezbollah but not drag the Middle East into an endless war, two Israeli officials said Monday, as Lebanon prepares to retaliate after rocket fire killed 12 children and teenagers in Israel – the Golan Heights area.

Two other Israeli officials said Israel was preparing for several days of war following Sunday's rocket strike on a stadium in the Druze area.

All four officials, including a senior defense official and a communications source, spoke on condition of anonymity and did not provide further details about Israel's retaliation plans.

“The estimate is that the response will not lead to an endless war,” said a media source. “That won't be in our interest right now.”

Israel and the United States blamed Lebanon's Hezbollah for the strike. Hezbollah has denied any role.

The incident added to concerns that months of cross-border hostilities between Israel and a heavily armed Lebanese militant group backed by Iran could escalate into an all-out war.

Late Sunday, Israel's security cabinet authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to decide “on the manner and timing” of the response to the rocket strike.

Israel's largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, quoted unnamed officials as saying the response would be “limited but significant”.

The report said retaliation options ranged from limited but “photographic” attacks on infrastructure, including bridges, power plants and ports, to strikes on Hezbollah weapons depots or targeting high-level Hezbollah commanders.

Fueled by the war in Gaza, hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have worsened since they went to war in 2006.

Hezbollah, which is affiliated with the Palestinian group, Hamas, said that its campaign of rocket and aerial attacks on Israel aims to support the Palestinians, and that it will end only if Israel's attack on Gaza stops.

The conflict on the Israel-Lebanon border has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a phone call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday, stressed the importance of preventing the escalation of conflicts, said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

They discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to allow citizens on both sides of the border between Israel and Lebanon to return home, as well as ongoing efforts to achieve an end to the fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages held there.

DRONE STRIKE

On Monday, an Israeli strike killed two people and wounded three in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Defense Ministry said. It was the first death in Lebanon since Saturday's incident.

A Lebanese security official told Reuters that the wounded included a baby, without saying whether the dead were soldiers or civilians.

Israel's military said its air defenses downed a drone from Lebanon that entered the Western Galilee region on Monday.

Flights at Beirut International Airport have been canceled or delayed as airlines react to a possible Israeli response.

Both Israel and Hezbollah have appeared to be at pains to avoid full-scale war since they began trading in October.

Hezbollah has denied that it fired the rocket that killed the youth. It said in a statement released early Saturday evening that it fired a military missile at the Golan Heights, a border area that Israel seized from Syria after the 1967 Middle East war and has since entered into a campaign not known to the world.