The White House on July 29 urged Israel to avoid escalating tensions with Lebanon-based Hezbollah after a rocket attack that killed 12 children at a soccer field in the Golan Heights.
“Israel has every right to respond,” Whitehouse national security spokesman John Kirby said during a call with reporters. “But nobody wants a broader war, and I’m confident that we’ll be able to avoid such an outcome.”
Mr. Kirby said that U.S. officials spoke with Israeli counterparts over the weekend, but he declined to provide further specifics.
“I want to let the Israelis speak to whatever their response to this attack is going to be,” he said. “We don’t want to see the war escalate. We don’t want to see a second front opened up there in the north. What we want to do, and what we’re so focused on, is finding a diplomatic solution.”…
