Israel Strikes Back After Killings on Soccer Field

While US diplomats worked at a furious pace Sunday to head off a major escalation of fighting in the Middle East, Israel retaliated after a rocket fired from Lebanon killed at least 12 people on a soccer field the day before. The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah weapons caches and infrastructure targets deep in Lebanon, the Washington Post reports. Israel's response appeared to fall short of its threat. Hezbollah has denied carrying out the strike that killed children and teenagers, though Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there is "every indication" that the Iranian-backed group was behind the attack.

Lebanon's government joined the lobbying. "We are trying to restrain Hezbollah now from retaliating to whatever the Israelis do next," Abdallah Bou Habib, Lebanon's foreign minister, told the New York Times. He said American officials asked him to relay the message, though that could not immediately be confirmed. French diplomats also were shuttling messages between Israel and Hezbollah. A United Nations statement warned both sides that they risk igniting "a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief." The attack on the soccer field in the Golan Heights was the deadliest strike on Israeli-controlled territory since Israel and Hezbollah began firing missiles and rockets at each other in October.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel early from his visit to the US and was to meet with senior ministers Sunday afternoon to consider next moves. He faces internal pressure to act forcefully; Israel's education minister urged a strong response "even if it means entering into an all-out war." A Majdal Shams resident said he was near the soccer field when the projectile hit. "All our children, all the time, they are playing," Majd Abu Saleh, an engineer, said. His 9-year-old daughter left the field minutes before three of her friends were killed, per the Post, and he took video showing motionless bodies contorted or pierced by shrapnel, clad in soccer jerseys. "This war, this stupid war, has to come to an end," another man at the field said. (More Israel stories.)