Israel will likely respond to the deadly rocket attack on Majdal Shams by intensifying its attacks on Hezbollah military sites deeper in Lebanon, though despite its current preference to avoid sparking a full-scale war, should Israel strike Beirut in its response, Hezbollah would retaliate by striking Haifa or Tel Aviv, initiating a tit-for-tat cycle that would almost certainly slide into a wider war. On July 28, Israel's security cabinet granted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government the authority to determine the ''manner and timing'' of a response to a deadly rocket attack in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on July 27. In that incident, a rocket struck a football field in the town of Majdal Shams, killing at least 12 individuals, including teenagers and children, while injuring dozens of others. Israel quickly attributed the attack to the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which had launched dozens of rocket attacks just before the incident,...
