Israeli strikes kill two people in southern Lebanon

The incident follows a deadly attack on the Israel-controlled Golan Heights.

People light candles in memory of the children and teenagers killed in a rocket strike at the village of Majdal Shams

Israeli strikes have killed two people and injured three others in southern Lebanon, state media said.

The report came as Israel mulls its response to a rocket attack from Lebanon over the weekend that killed 12 children and teenagers on a football pitch in a town in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights.

Monday’s early morning strikes seemed to be more routine action rather than Israel’s response to the deadly weekend attack.

Lebanese state media said the strike hit a motorcycle traveling close to the Lebanon-Israel border, killing two riders and injuring a child.

Wreath of flowers are placed on the site of the rocket strike on a football pitch — The Hezbollah strike hit Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights (AP)

No more information about the dead or injured was immediately available.

Also on Monday, two were injured in a separate strike in southern Lebanon, Lebanese state media reported.

Israeli military officials said only that the military had struck Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure but did not give more information.

Since October 8, violence has flared across the border between Israeli troops and Hezbollah.

Israel’s military says the weekend attack on Majdal Shams marked the deadliest attack on civilians since October 7, raising fears of a broader regional war.

A woman from the Druze minority is overcome by emotion as she holds a motorized scooter at the site where 12 children and teens were killed in a rocket strike on a soccer field — Several youngsters died in the strike (AP)

An official with a Lebanese group told The Associated Press that Hezbollah group has started moving precision-guided missiles, but does not want a full-blown war with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the site of the rocket attack on Monday, but some residents of the Druze village protested by tossing his wreath aside and saying the tragedy should not be used for political purposes.

Earlier, US secretary of state Antony Blinken has spoken with Israeli President Isaac Herzog to urge that Israel and Hezbollah step back from escalating their conflict.

Israeli leaders are weighing a response to the weekend rocket attack that killed 12 young people in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. Israel blamed Iran-backed Hezbollah, which denied responsibility.

The US and France for months have pushed a negotiated agreement between Hezbollah and Israel to keep the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza from spinning into a larger and more dangerous regional conflict.

Druze clergymen attend the funeral of some of the 12 children and teenagers killed in a rocket strike — The incident marked the deadliest strike on an Israeli target along the country’s northern border since the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

The US state department said that Mr Blinken “emphasised the importance of preventing escalation of the conflict and discussed efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to allow citizens on both sides of the border between Israel and Lebanon to return home”.

Mr Blinken also underlined the United States’ commitment to Israel’s defence against Iranian-allied armed groups in the call with Mr Herzog.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it is holding nine soldiers for questioning following allegations of “substantial abuse” of a detainee at a shadowy facility where Israel has held Palestinian prisoners throughout the war in Gaza.

The military said its top legal official had launched a probe. An investigation by The Associated Press and reports by rights groups have exposed abysmal conditions at the Sde Teiman facility, the country’s largest detention centre.

The military has generally denied ill-treatment of detainees. Following the accusations, Israel has said it is transferring the bulk of Palestinian detainees out of Sde Teiman and upgrading it.

The detentions of soldiers prompted an outcry among members of Israel’s far-right government, who condemned the investigation as an affront to their service.