The White House has said the United States is confident that a wider war between Israel and Hezbollah can be avoided despite a deadly rocket attack in the annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children, AFP reports.

US and Israeli officials had conversations at “multiple levels” over the weekend following the attack and the risk of a full-blown conflict is “exaggerated”, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

“Nobody wants a broader war, and I’m confident that we’ll be able to avoid such an outcome,” Kirby said in a call with reporters.

“We all heard about this ‘all-out war’ at multiple points over the last 10 months, those predictions were exaggerated then, quite frankly, we think they’re exaggerated now.”

Kirby said the soaring tensions however should not have a bearing on talks for a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel is battling Hamas.

“We don’t see any indications at this point in time here, on Monday morning, that there’s going to be a significant impact,” Kirby said.