Global leaders attempted on Sunday to dissuade Israel from retaliating against Lebanon after Hezbollah fired a rocket into an Israeli soccer field in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, killing 12 children.

A statement from the White House blamed the attack on Hezbollah, read, "[I]t was their rocket, and launched from an area they control. It should be universally condemned." However, the national security council added that the U.S. was "also working on a diplomatic solution ... that will end all attacks once and for all."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, "[W]e also don't want to see the conflict escalate. We don't want to see it spread." And French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France is committed to doing "everything to avoid a new escalation in the region by passing messages to all parties involved in the conflict."

The Prime Minister's Office said Sunday that the members of the security Cabinet had authorized Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to decide on how and when to respond against Hezbollah.

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