Israel cabinet authorizes Netanyahu to decide response to rocket from Lebanon

The region was gripped with uncertainty, hoping for a calibrated, pinpoint response but prepping for a widespread assault that diplomats warned could erupt into a regional war.

Residents of Beirut stocked up on emergency supplies in case the expected strikes reached as far as the Lebanese capital. Hezbollah militants threatened to target Haifa and other Israeli cities if they did. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted to supporters that Turkey could “enter” Israel if necessary, prompting a rebuke from Israel.

On a visit Monday to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the site of Saturday’s deadly strike, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “will not, and cannot, ignore this,” before vowing to retaliate. “Our response will come, and it will be severe.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that “there is no way to restore security for the residents of the north without a war that will destroy Hezbollah, recapture southern Lebanon and return the security zone currently within our territory back to Lebanon.”

The remarks came after Israel’s security cabinet authorized Netanyahu and his defense minister late Sunday to decide on the “manner and timing” of Israel’s response to Saturday’s rocket strike. The Israel Defense Forces released a list Sunday of victims who were 10 to 16 years old.

“The concerns that it could spin out of control are very high,” said an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

“For me, a Jewish child murdered … on October 7 or a Druze child murdered in the Golan Heights is the same thing,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday on a visit to the village of Majdal Shams, where the strike occurred. “Hezbollah will pay a price for this — our actions will speak.”

Gallant held a call with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday in which he told Austin that the use of an Iranian rocket equipped with 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of explosives indicated Hezbollah’s responsibility for the attack. Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has denied any connection to the attack.

Israel’s military struck a number of Hezbollah targets deep inside Lebanon on Sunday. Hussein Fakih, a spokesman for Lebanon’s civil defense, said in an interview that two people were killed and three people, including a child, were injured in a Monday strike on the road between Chaqra and Meiss El Jabal, in southeastern Lebanon. Later Monday, Hezbollah announced the deaths of two of its members.

Approximately 20 projectiles fired from southern Lebanon fell in an open area in northern Israel, the IDF said Monday, adding that it destroyed the launcher used in Lebanon. No injuries were reported.

A flurry of diplomatic efforts to calm the situation, launched from Washington, Paris and regional capitals, began within hours of the attack, according to Western and Israeli officials familiar with the situation. U.S. officials said Israel has a right to respond to the attack but also urged its ally to show restraint.

Early signals suggested that Jerusalem might be listening. The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted unnamed Israeli officials describing the likely operation as “limited but significant.”

Israel’s predicament, according to current and former security officials, is how to answer the attack without leaving Hezbollah with no choice but to escalate in turn — which might draw Iran more directly into the fight. The Israeli military keeps a range of target scenarios on the shelf, regularly updated with new intelligence, according to a military official who described readiness planning to The Washington Post on a visit to the border zone in the spring.

Planners will also be looking at recent responses. This month, after a drone attack launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen that killed one person in Tel Aviv, Israel responded a day later with a withering strike that severely damaged a major Yemeni port.

In April, after Israel and allies shot down most of an unprecedented barrage of missiles and drones fired from Iran, the military answered with a calibrated counterstrike that showed its ability to reach into Iranian territory but did minimal damage. Both sides stood down.

Some major airlines are suspending and rescheduling Beirut flights, citing tension in the Middle East. Air France said Monday that flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport and Beirut are suspended Monday and Tuesday, while German airline Lufthansa said it was suspending flights to Beirut through Aug. 5. Lebanon’s main airline, Middle East Airlines, rescheduled flights to and from Beirut on Sunday and Monday, citing “technical reasons related to the distribution of insurance risks.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences for those killed in the Majdal Shams attack in a call with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday, in addition to emphasizing “the importance of preventing escalation of the conflict,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on social media that he spoke to Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati about the escalating tensions, with both agreeing that “widening of the conflict in the region is in nobody’s interest.”

Hamas on Monday accused Netanyahu of procrastinating and delaying cease-fire negotiations by “setting new conditions and demands.” In response, Netanyahu said it was Hamas that was “preventing an agreement” by demanding changes, and that Israel has “neither changed, nor added any condition to, the outline.” Both Israel and Hamas are under pressure to close the remaining gaps in reaching an agreement to at least temporarily end more than nine months of conflict.

Far-right demonstrators rallied outside and broke into the Sde Teiman military base in Israel after nine reservists were detained in connection to allegations of “serious abuse of a detainee.” Some politicians, including members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, issued statements in support of the protesters’ cause. Netanyahu himself, as well as IDF leadership and Herzog, condemned the break-in and called for the restoration of calm.

Conditions in Israeli prisons have deteriorated dangerously since Oct. 7, rights groups say, as detailed in a Post report. The Post spoke to former Palestinian prisoners and lawyers and reviewed autopsy reports and court records to reveal rampant violence and deprivation in Israel’s prison system, with routine beatings — usually with batons — and sometimes attacks with dogs, as well as psychological abuse and denial of sufficient food and medical care.

At least 39,363 people have been killed and 90,923 injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, including more than 300 soldiers, and says 329 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operation in Gaza.

Kareem Fahim and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut, Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv and Michael Birnbaum in Tokyo contributed to this report.