Netanyahu authorised to order retaliation for deadly Golan strike

Israeli ministers authorised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence chief Sunday to decide on the “manner and timing” of a response to a rocket strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teens, The Times of Israel reported.

Israel has blamed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah for the incident.

Israel has vowed retaliation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Israeli jets hit targets in southern Lebanon during the day on Sunday and reportedly shelled sites there just after midnight Monday, as Lebanon braced for Israel’s expected reprisal and diplomats scrambled to keep the conflict from snowballing.

Members of the Druze community held funerals Sunday for 11 of the 12 young victims of the strike on a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams, amid fury and grief over the tragedy, which occurred just steps from a bomb shelter, and already sky-high tensions sparked by 10 months of nearly daily rocket attacks on northern Israel and tit-for-tat strikes in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met Sunday night with members of the high-level security cabinet to discuss Israel’s response to the Saturday attack.

According to the Prime Minister’s office, during the four-hour meeting, lawmakers voted to give Netanyahu and Gallant authority to decide on the scale and timing of Israel’s response to yesterday’s deadly rocket attack in the Golan.