Lebanon on alert

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Airlines suspended flights to Lebanon on Monday as diplomatic efforts were under way to contain soaring tensions between Hizbollah and Israel after deadly rocket fire in the annexed Golan Heights.

Mourners gathered in the Golan Heights town of Majdal Shams for the funeral of 11-year-old Guevara Ibrahim, the last of 12 victims — all aged 10 to 16 — of the rocket that hit a football pitch in the Druze Arab community on Saturday.

Israel and the United States have blamed the attack on Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbollah group, which has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces since the start of the Gaza war in early October.

The White House said on Monday it is “confident” that a wider war between Israel and Hizbollah can be avoided despite the deadly rocket attack.

“Nobody wants a broader war, and I’m confident that we’ll be able to avoid such an outcome,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a call with reporters.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said a flurry of diplomatic activity has sought to contain the anticipated Israeli response, after defence minister Yoav Gallant threatened to “hit the enemy hard”.

“Israel will escalate in a limited way and Hizbollah will respond in a limited way... These are the assurances we’ve received,” Bou Habib said in an interview late Sunday with local broadcaster Al Jadeed.

The United States, France and others were trying to contain the escalation, he added, while Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati had also said that “talks are ongoing with international, European and Arab sides to protect Lebanon and ward off dangers”.

Several airlines including Lufthansa, Air France and Transavia announced Monday the suspension of their Beirut lines.

But in central Beirut, shop owner Muhammad Saad, 53, said life went on as usual.

“We’re already at war, what more could happen?” he told AFP.

Hizbollah has denied responsibility for the Majdal Shams rocket attack, though the group claimed multiple strikes on Israeli military positions that day.

Gaza battles 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the site of the rocket strike Monday, has said “Hizbollah will pay a heavy price”.

He convened Sunday his security cabinet, whose members “authorised the prime minister and the defence minister to decide on the manner and timing of the response”, Netanyahu’s office said without elaborating.

Hizbollah has evacuated some positions in south and east Lebanon, a source close to the group told AFP.

On Monday, Hizbollah said it had launched “dozens of Katyusha rockets” at an Israeli military site following the “assassination” of two of its fighters.

A source close to the group told AFP the pair were killed in an air raid on Lebanon’s southern village of Mais al-Jabal.

The cross-border violence has so far killed at least 529 people in Lebanon, according to an AFP tally, most of them fighters but also including 104 civilians.

On the Israeli side, 24 civilians and 22 soldiers have been killed, according to the military.

Hizbollah is an ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The Lebanese group has said its attacks are in support of Hamas, and that they would stop if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.

Months of efforts have failed to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal, though mediators and Israeli negotiators met on Sunday in Rome to discuss the latest proposal.

“The negotiations on the main issues will continue in the coming days,” an Israeli statement said.

On the ground in the besieged Palestinian territory, the Israeli military said its forces were “continuing precise, intelligence-based operational activity in the Rafah area” and in nearby Khan Yunis, where troops had “eliminated dozens of terrorists”.

Israeli aircraft struck 35 targets across Gaza in 24 hours, the military added.

In the territory’s north, Hamas’s armed wing said its fighters were “engaging” an Israeli force in Gaza City’s Tal Al Hawa district.

Witnesses reported shelling overnight and into the morning in Tal al-Hawa and other parts of the city.

 ‘Forcing people to flee’ 

The Hamas attack on southern Israel that started the war resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,363 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.

Late Sunday, the Israeli military announced its latest evacuation order for parts of central Gaza, asking Palestinians to head to a declared safe zone near Khan Yunis.

It said Israeli forces would “operate forcefully” against militants in the area of Al Bureij refugee camp after rockets had been fired from there.

Witnesses said hundreds were fleeing the area on Monday.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Israeli evacuation orders cover the vast majority of the besieged territory.

“Only 14 per cent of areas in Gaza are not under the evacuation orders,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini on social media platform X.

“Every other day, the Israeli authorities issue these orders forcing people to flee,” he said.