Thousands of mourners have attended funerals for the 12 children and teenagers killed by a rocket strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as Israel vowed swift retaliation against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
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Hezbollah has denied any responsibility for the attack on Majdal Shams, the deadliest in Israel or Israeli-annexed territory since the October 7 Hamas assault sparked the war in Gaza, which has since spread to several fronts and now risks spilling into a wider regional conflict.
Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon overnight but a stronger response was expected following the return of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from his US visit and a meeting of the security cabinet.
Families gathered for funerals in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in a move not recognised by most countries.
Hezbollah initially announced it fired rockets at Israeli military sites in the Golan heights, but denied involvement in the attack on Majdal Shams, saying it had "absolutely nothing to do with the incident, and categorically denies all false allegations in this regard."
However Israel, which said the rocket launch was carried out from an area north of the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, has placed the blame squarely on the Iranian-backed group, saying Hezbollah was "unequivocally responsible" for the deaths of the children as they were playing football.
"The rocket that murdered our boys and girls was an Iranian rocket and Hezbollah is the only terror organisation which has those in its arsenal," Israel's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Israeli forces have been exchanging fire for months with Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon but both sides had appeared to be avoiding an escalation that could lead to an all-out war, potentially dragging in other powers including the United States and Iran.
Its feared the latest attack could tip the standoff into a more dangerous phase and United Nations officials have urged maximum restraint from both sides, warning that further escalation "could ignite a wider conflagration that would engulf the entire region in a catastrophe beyond belief."
The Lebanese government has also asked the US to urge restraint from Israel, according to Lebanon's foreign minister Abdallah Bou Habib.
The Hamas assault on southern Israel killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Israel's subsequent military response has killed more than 39,200 Palestinians, according to the territory's health ministry.
Iran warned Israel on Sunday against what it called any new adventure in Lebanon, in a statement issued by foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani. However Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, visiting the site of the strike, said: "We will hit the enemy hard".
The United States, which has been leading diplomatic efforts aimed at de-escalating the conflict across the Lebanese-Israeli border, condemned the strike as a horrific attack but did not directly accuse Hezbollah.
The statement from the White House said US support for Israel's security was iron-clad and that it would "continue to support efforts to end these terrible attacks along the Blue Line, which must be a top priority". The Blue Line refers to the frontier between Lebanon and Israel.
More than 40,000 people live on the Israeli-occupied Golan, more than half of them Druze residents. The Druze are an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam but many serve in the Israeli military and feel a strong attachment to Israel.
The conflict has forced tens of thousands of people in both Lebanon and Israel to leave their homes. Israeli strikes have killed some 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists.
The Israeli military said after Saturday's attack the death toll among civilians killed in Hezbollah attacks had risen to 23 since October, along with at least 17 soldiers.
Hezbollah is the most powerful of a network of Iran-backed groups across the Middle East that have entered the fray in support of their Palestinian ally Hamas since October.
Australian Associated Press
