A drone strike by Israel killed two individuals and injured three others in southern Lebanon on Monday, according to the Lebanese civil defence.
This comes as Lebanon prepares for Israeli retaliation after a rocket attack over the weekend that resulted in the deaths of 12 teenagers and children.
On Sunday night, Israel’s security cabinet authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration to decide on the “manner and timing” of a reaction to the rocket attack in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.
The attack on Saturday was attributed by Israel and the United States to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, but the Iran-backed group has refuted any involvement.
The missile strike on a sports field in the Golan Heights has heightened the risk of escalating the delicate standoff into a larger conflict, prompting international appeals for both sides to exercise constraint.
Israel’s reply was not immediately clear, but according to unnamed officials quoted by the country’s largest newspaper, “‘Yedioth Ahronoth”, it is expected to be “limited yet impactful”.
The report outlined different retaliation strategies, from a visible strike on critical infrastructure such as bridges, power plants, and ports, to targeting Hezbollah’s armouries or high-ranking commanders.
An official from the Lebanese civil defense reported to Reuters that Monday’s Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon injured three people, including an infant. The recovery service did not specify whether the deceased were militants or civilians.
On Monday, the Israeli military reported that its air defenses intercepted a drone that had crossed from Lebanon into the Western Galilee region.
Due to the threat of an Israeli response, airlines have canceled or delayed flights at Beirut’s international airport.
Since October, both Israel and Hezbollah have been careful to avoid a full-scale war amid their ongoing exchanges, which were triggered by the Gaza conflict.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed a desire to prevent further escalation along Israel’s northern border and reaffirmed American support for Israel. During a press conference in Tokyo, Blinken stated.
“We support Israel’s right to defend its citizens and are committed to ensuring they can do so. However, we also aim to avoid an escalation of the conflict and its potential spread.”
Hezbollah has refuted claims that it was behind the rocket attack that resulted in the deaths of the children. However, the group acknowledged firing a missile at a military site in the Golan Heights, an area Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Middle East war and annexed, a move not broadly accepted internationally.