Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from his U.S. trip on Sunday and swiftly headed for a security cabinet meeting after deadly rocket fire killed 12 youths in the Golan Heights.

"The prime minister’s plane has landed in Israel. He is now making his way to the defense ministry" for the meeting, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

An Egyptian official said the deadly strike in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights could give urgency to the negotiations to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza, which would be reflected on the Israeli-Hezbollah front.

He said mediators will use such an attack to press for a cease-fire in Gaza to avoid an all-out war in the region.

Weeping men carried small coffins at a funeral ceremony attended by thousands from the Druze community on Sunday for many of the 12 youths killed in a rocket strike on the Israeli annexed Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said they were struck on Saturday by an Iranian-made rocket carrying a 50-kilogram warhead that Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group fired at a football field in the Druze Arab town of Majdal Shams.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that there was "every indication" that Hezbollah was behind a rocket strike in the Israel-annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 young people.

"Every indication is that indeed the rocket was from Hezbollah. We stand by Israel's right to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks," Blinken told reporters in Japan.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Sunday condemned what she said was the "deplorable" rocket attack on the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, which killed 12 people, and called for "cool heads" in response.

"The perfidious attacks must stop immediately. It is important to act with cool heads. Far too many people have died already in this conflict," Baerbock wrote on X in reference to the Gaza war, which risks spreading to Lebanon.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday vowed to "hit the enemy hard" after rocket fire -- which Israel said came from Hezbollah -- killed 12 young people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and again raised fears that the war in Gaza will spread.

Israel's emergency medical service said at least 10 people were killed in the annexed Golan Heights on Saturday by a barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon.

The 10 were killed when a rocket hit a football pitch in the Arab town of Majdal Shams, where many residents retain Syrian nationality decades after the territory's occupation in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Magen David Adom said.

The Israeli army said Saturday that it shot down a drone over the sea that had crossed from Lebanon, as Israeli media reports said the UAV, likely unarmed, was headed for the Karish offshore gas field.

The White House has announced that U.S. officials will halt the deportation of Lebanese citizens who have run afoul of immigration laws because of the ongoing conflict on Lebanon’s border with Israel.

President Joe Biden said in a statement that “humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon have significantly deteriorated” and “many civilians remain in danger” due to the ongoing low-level fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.

The commander of the Israeli army’s northern command, Major General Uri Gordin, visited the Golani Brigade's combat squad this week, the Israeli army said on Friday.

"We are committed to changing the security situation here in the north," said Gordin, adding that "all the residents of Metula and all the residents of the north will be able to return to their homes.”