Monday Briefing: A Deadly Strike on the Israel-Lebanon Border

The site of a rocket strike at a soccer field in the Golan Heights yesterday.Credit…Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times

Fears of war between Israel and Lebanon after a deadly strike

Western diplomats were scrambling to prevent a surge of fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border after a rocket from Lebanon killed at least 12 children and teenagers at a soccer field in an Israeli-controlled town on Saturday.

It was the deadliest assault on Israeli-controlled territory since Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging missile and rocket fire in October, and Israel retaliated early yesterday with strikes across Lebanon. The Israeli response was short of a major escalation, but fears remained that the fallout from the rocket launch would lead to all-out war.

A spokeswoman for the National Security Council said in a statement that Hezbollah had organized the attack. U.S. officials asked Lebanon’s government to relay a message to Hezbollah to show restraint in the face of a further Israeli response, according to Lebanon’s foreign minister. Hezbollah denied that it was responsible.

For now, Israeli officials say that they are still open to a diplomatic resolution. A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday that a full-scale war could still be averted through the enforcement of a never-implemented U.N. resolution from 2006 that would create a demilitarized zone in southern Lebanon.

Related: Negotiators from Israel, Qatar and the U.S. met in Rome to resume talks over a cease-fire in Gaza that had stalled over key issues, particularly the extent to which Israeli forces would remain in Gaza during a truce.