In January, Mr. Netanyahu said that his government does not support plans to build settlements on the ruins of Gaza. His opposition likely stems from concerns that re-establishing settlements could complicate Israel’s security situation and damage its standing abroad, as settlements are considered illegal under international law. Israel also faces frequent criticism for the hardships Palestinians endure under Israeli military rule and the presence of settlers in the West Bank.

But as the war against Hamas continues with no end in sight, and uncertainty about Israel’s postwar plan looms, some in the Israeli leader’s coalition want to pressure him to reverse, or at least soften, his position on reviving Jewish settlements in Gaza.

“Everyone in Likud supports this as an idea,” said Avihai Boaron, a member of the Knesset from the Likud party who attended the event. “Our job now is to legitimize this as a plan.”

For the majority of the world, the settlements, which were dismantled in Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, were viewed as a barrier to resolving the conflict — a stance that continues to apply to those in the West Bank.

But for settler activists who believe the Gaza Strip is part of a biblical land promised to the Jewish people, leaving it in 2005 wasn’t just a mistake: it was a sin. They argue that if a Jewish civilian population had remained there, protected by the military, Hamas would not have been able to carry out the brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Rebuilding Jewish settlements in Gaza, they now say, is the only thing that can ensure the security of Israelis. “This will prevent the next massacre,” said Yinon Goldstein, 23, a West Bank settler who is part of an activist group that aspires to establish New Gaza, or a Jewish metropolitan area in place of the devastated Palestinian Gaza City.

Polling since the beginning of the war has suggested that the majority of Israelis aren’t persuaded by these arguments, and some security experts disputed these claims, saying that the real motivations for building settlements in Gaza are religious, not practical.

Behind the main stage, later taken by Mr. Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister — who praised efforts to encourage Palestinians to leave Gaza — and Mr. Smotrich, the finance minister, who vowed to reintroduce Jewish settlements in Gaza, clouds of smoke rose from a distant Palestinian town in the enclave, accompanied by the thunderous roar of artillery fire. Yet, the attendees seemed to pay little notice.

Most came for the day, but a group of about 10 settler activists hoping to be the first to rebuild in Gaza has been camping for several months a short drive from there — near a highway, under a concrete bridge, a mile and a half from the northeast corner of the Gaza border.

A squad of soldiers, still dusty from fighting in northern Gaza, stopped by for coffee. Their officer, Yaron Arkash, 24, a tall, bearded man with a dark complexion, asked one of the settlers camping there who in the government was pushing for resettling Gaza.

“If I could,” Mr. Arkash said, “I’d build a home there in a heartbeat.”

The deaths of the Lebanese soldiers highlighted the complicated dynamic that Lebanon’s army is navigating as Israel invades its territory to fight Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant and political group with significant influence in the country.

The Lebanese Army is not a party to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Still, Lebanon’s military does not support Israel’s invasion of its country, and referred to Israel as the “enemy” in statements on Sunday and Monday about the soldiers’ deaths, saying they were targeted when they were driving in an army vehicle in southern Lebanon.

By contrast, the Israeli military said in a statement that it is “not operating against the Lebanese Army and apologizes for these unwanted circumstances.”

It was the third time this month that Israeli troops have killed Lebanese soldiers amid Israel’s war with Hezbollah. And the incident came just a day before the Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun of the Lebanese Armed Forces met with Amos Hochstein, President Biden’s envoy on the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, to discuss the situation in Lebanon and “ways to support the Lebanese Army.”

American officials have expressed hope that Israel’s attacks will weaken Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist organization, and loosen the group’s hold on Lebanese institutions and society. The United States has provided financial and training support to Lebanon’s armed forces, amounting to more than $3 billion since 2006.

But if the Lebanese army were to get drawn into Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah, the United States would find itself in the awkward position of having two American-supported militaries fighting each other.

“It’s already tricky where you have U.S.-backed forces killing U.S.-backed forces,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis for Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank.

The risk of Lebanon’s army entering the fray is low, Ms. Kavanagh said. The army has long maintained a position of neutrality that has given it legitimacy with international players like the United States, which it would quickly lose if it joined the fight, she said.

“It would be difficult for the U.S. to fund the Lebanese Armed Forces if they fight Israel,” she said.

And Lebanon’s army adopted its neutral position in part because it is “extremely weak” economically and otherwise, Ms. Kavanagh said. Lebanon has been in a severe economic crisis since 2019, leaving the army scrambling to recruit, pay salaries, train and get equipment, and it is no match for either Israel or Hezbollah, she said.

But she said the view that Israel’s war against Hezbollah could prove advantageous for Lebanon in the long term is held mostly by those outside the country. The Lebanese army does want to be stronger, she said, but Israel “just taking out Hezbollah positions isn’t going to get it there.”

The Lebanese army was supposed to work with United Nations peacekeepers to ensure that Hezbollah militants could not operate in southern Lebanon, according to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution, known as 1701, that ended the last war between Israel and Hezbollah. The army has been criticized for failing to enforce the terms of that resolution, which international diplomats are now seeking to revive.

In his visit to Lebanon on Monday, Mr. Hochstein, the American envoy, pledged to support Lebanon’s reconstruction if the U.N. resolution is enforced, seeming to suggest that the United States wants the Lebanese government to push for Hezbollah’s disarmament in southern Lebanon, and to deploy more Lebanese troops in its place.

But the army still plays an important role in Lebanon even if it is not undertaking the traditional job of a military to maintain its country’s territorial integrity. As long as Israel maintains its position that it is not at war with Lebanon or its people and is targeting only Hezbollah — and if Lebanon argues that it doesn’t have effective control over Hezbollah, from a legal perspective — the two states are not in an armed conflict and the army’s primary role is focused inward, experts say.

“Its role is to protect the state and its people, to protect Lebanese civilians,” said Noha Aboueldahab, an assistant professor of international law at Georgetown University in Qatar. “They need to play a humanitarian role for civilians.”

Euan Ward contributed reporting.

Israel’s minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, signed an order on Monday adding Al-Qard al-Hassan to a list of groups designated by Israel as terrorist organizations. The designation is part of a wider campaign led by Israel’s defense establishment, targeting the economic resources of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations.

What is Al-Qard al-Hasan?

In addition to its military wing, Hezbollah also functions as a political organization and provides a range of social services inside Lebanon. Al-Qard al-Hasan is registered as a charity in Lebanon.

The organization’s name translates as “benevolent loan,” lending money based on the principles of Islamic finance, which prohibits interest. The loans, usually no more than $5,000, are backed by deposits of gold, jewelry or other valuable goods. It also offers savings accounts and financial transfers, and processes payments.

The de facto bank, which has around 30 branches, is the largest microcredit organization in a country where the traditional banking sector is in shambles. It is not regulated by the central bank and is not part of the international banking system.

Who uses the organization?

Since its founding in the early 1980s, Hezbollah has been a significant force in Lebanon, wielding political power and military strength, as well as providing social support, particularly to the country’s large Shiite population. The bank was set up in 1983 to serve the Shiite community, but it gained more clients in 2019 when the banking system all but collapsed.

The U.S. Treasury Department claims that the bank has been used by Hezbollah as “a cover to manage the terrorist group’s financial activities and gain access to the international financial system.”

The department placed Al-Qard al-Hasan under sanctions in 2007 for operating as Hezbollah’s de facto banking arm. In 2021, in the wake of the Lebanese financial crisis, the sanctions were strengthened, with the department accusing the association of “hoarding hard currency that is desperately needed by the Lebanese economy” and compromising the stability of the Lebanese state.

Why is Israel targeting Al-Qard al-Hasan?

Shlomit Wagman, the former chair of Israel’s Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prohibition Authority, said Al-Qard al-Hasan has become Hezbollah’s principal financial institution, responsible for safeguarding some $750 million a year in Iranian funding, as well as the proceeds from the organization’s criminal enterprises that are used to finance its attacks on Israel.

In a statement following Sunday’s attacks, Israel’s military said that the banking association “directly funds Hezbollah’s terror activities,” including the purchase of “weapons and payments to operatives in Hezbollah’s military wing.” The strikes, it added, are part of Israel’s efforts to “degrade Hezbollah’s terror infrastructure, its military capabilities and ability to rebuild.”

What is the impact of the strikes?

On Monday, the immediate damage from the strikes remained unclear, with no casualties reported.

Few traditional bank branches would have significant amounts of cash on hand, Ms. Wagman said. But the international sanctions against Al-Qard al-Hasan meant it was more likely that its branches might have kept physical caches of dollars, as well as the gold of its depositors. If these were destroyed in the strikes, Hezbollah’s ability to fund future attacks may be further reduced, Ms. Wagman said.

Still, she said, “We can also assume that Iran, which is the major sponsor of Hezbollah, will very soon refuel those supplies.” She noted that the psychological impact may be more enduring, serving to “further reduce the trust between Hezbollah and the Lebanese people.”

Makram Ouaiss, executive director for the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a Beirut-based research organization, said that Al-Qard al-Hasan probably knew it would be targeted, and likely would have moved valuables to a safe location. He also noted that most branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan in Beirut occupy the ground floor of mixed commercial and residential buildings. “This probably isn’t going to hurt Hezbollah, but it will hurt lots of Lebanese,” he said.

What is the economic situation in Lebanon?

In a word, catastrophic. The traditional banking system all but collapsed in 2019, largely because of a combination of bad policy, bad loans and corruption. Account holders with mainstream banks have not been able to access most of their funds for several years.

The World Bank estimates that more than a third of the country is living below the poverty line, based on prewar data. With more than a million Lebanese people displaced and hundreds of buildings destroyed in the Israeli bombing campaign over the past month, the number of people living in poverty is likely to be far worse.

Johnatan Reissand Euan Ward contributed reporting.

A separate statement, in Hebrew, said that the suspects had surveilled Nevatim, an air base in the Negev desert in the south of the country, which Iran attempted to hit with missiles on Oct. 1. The statements did not say when the arrests were made.

The English language version of Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, did not mention the case or offer any response from the Iranian authorities.

“The network members were aware that the intelligence they provided compromised national security and could potentially aid enemy missile attacks,” the statement said.

The statement named five of the suspects, citing the other two as minors, and said that they used equipment “procured specifically” for tasks of espionage under Iranian guidance.

Some of the suspects were caught while trying to gather intelligence on a senior Israeli citizen who lived nearby. Israeli security determined that there was a potential plan to harm that citizen, but gave no details of their identity. Charges against the suspects are expected in the coming days, the statement said, adding that they were all Jewish Israeli citizens.

The suspects were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, some of it in cryptocurrency, the statement said. They were originally from Azerbaijan, according to the Israeli news organization Haaretz, which said they were motivated by money.

Israel’s government has said it will retaliate against Iran for a drone and missile attack by Tehran on Israel on Oct. 1. Direct conflict between Israel and Iran broke out in April after a clandestine war that had lasted for decades.

In September, Israeli authorities said they had indicted a citizen who prosecutors said met with Iranian intelligence agents and discussed a plan to carry out attacks on Israeli soil, including a possible attempt to assassinate the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the justice ministry.

“The situation has escalated out of control,” Mr. Hochstein told reporters in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. He said that the White House aimed to reach “a comprehensive agreement” that would see the full enforcement of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

That agreement, which called for U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese military to be the only armed forces operating in southern Lebanon, is today widely considered a failure.

In the years since, Iranian-backed Hezbollah has only entrenched itself militarily along Israel’s northern border, amassing a vast arsenal of rockets and missiles. Israel, too, has long been accused of violating Lebanon’s sovereignty, even before embarking on a ground invasion this month.

The U.N. resolution “was successful at ending the war in 2006, but we must be honest that no one did anything to implement it. The lack of implementation over those years contributed to the conflict that we are in today,” Mr. Hochstein said after meeting with Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, a key interlocutor between the United States and Hezbollah.

Mr. Hochstein also met on Monday with the caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, and the commander of the Lebanese armed forces.

His visit was part of a renewed flurry of U.S. diplomatic efforts in the Middle East coming this week. It follows Israel’s killing of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hezbollah’s ally Hamas, whose death the Biden administration hopes will pave the way for a cease-fire in Gaza. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was scheduled to depart later on Monday for another trip to the Middle East, which will include a stop in Israel, the State Department said.

Hopes for calm, however, appear premature. Israeli forces have continued a deadly offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza, and heavy Israeli airstrikes overnight targeted Hezbollah’s financial apparatus just hours before Mr. Hochstein’s meetings.

Even as the U.S. envoy spoke to reporters, Hezbollah continued to fire rockets toward northern Israel, following pledges by the group to intensify its attacks against Israel in the wake of Mr. Sinwar’s death.

“This is a really heartbreaking moment for me to be here in Lebanon,” Mr. Hochstein said, adding: “While we spent 11 months containing the conflict, we were not able to resolve it.”

Mr. Hochstein said on Monday that the United States would aid in Lebanon’s efforts to rebuild from Israeli attacks, but only if the U.N. resolution was fully administered to reduce the chances of conflict breaking out again.

“The world will stand by Lebanon and its leaders if they make the brave and the hard choices that are required at this time,” he said. The comments appeared to be a call for the Lebanese government to push for Hezbollah’s disarmament in southern Lebanon, and for it to deploy more Lebanese troops in its place, as stipulated by the 2006 U.N. resolution.

Hezbollah has pledged repeatedly that only an end to the war in Gaza will bring about peace. Although top Lebanese officials have said the group is on board with reviving the U.N. resolution, its leaders have publicly pledged to escalate their aerial attacks against Israel. And it remains unclear if Hezbollah would agree to withdraw from southern Lebanon — with or without a cease-fire in Gaza.

The missiles were intercepted by Israel’s air defenses along with those of the United States and other allies. The THAAD battery, a mobile defense system, is designed to add another layer of protection to defend cities, troops and installations from short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

Mr. Austin said on Monday that the THAAD system was in place in Israel. “We have the ability to put it into operation very quickly,” he told reporters traveling with him to Ukraine.

It is the first time that U.S. troops — about 100 of whom the Pentagon said it was sending to help operate the system — have been deployed to Israel in this way since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. Their arrival comes as Israel wages war in Gaza and Lebanon against militia forces backed by Iran. Israel has also struck the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen in recent months and Iran itself earlier this year.

However, it is not the first time that the United States — already Israel’s main military supplier — has boosted its military presence in the Middle East in support of Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks. Shortly after Israel went to war in Gaza in response to the attacks, the United States sent warships to the Persian Gulf and a THAAD battery and Patriot missile defense systems to unspecified locations.

There are currently more than 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, and the Pentagon said in late September that between 2,000 and 3,000 more were being sent to bolster their security.

The THAAD system, which can operate above the atmosphere, is designed to intercept ballistic missiles is also able to intercept debris from downed missiles before it hits the ground, where it can inflict casualties and damage.

President Biden and other U.S. officials say that Mr. Sinwar’s killing could create new opportunities for diplomacy, especially around the long-stalled effort to reach a cease-fire in Gaza that would free hostages held by Hamas and allow for a surge of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians trapped there. But Hamas and Israeli leaders have vowed to fight on, and many analysts doubt that a deal has moved within reach.

Mr. Blinken will arrive in the region at a time when it is bracing for Israel to attack Iran in retaliation for an Iranian ballistic missile barrage on Israel earlier this month. American and Israeli officials have been discussing the response in recent weeks, and Israeli officials have told Washington that they will refrain from attacks on Iranian nuclear or energy sites that could lead to dramatic escalation between the countries.

Mr. Blinken will have several other agenda items during his trip, including planning for the governance and security of Gaza after Israel’s military campaign in the territory ends, the State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said in the statement announcing the travel.

Mr. Biden previewed that part of Mr. Blinken’s trip on Thursday, telling reporters that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel about it. “We’re going to work out what is the day after now — how do we secure Gaza and move on?” Mr. Biden said.

As Israel continues to pound southern Lebanon in a separate campaign against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah, Mr. Blinken will also discuss “the need to reach a diplomatic resolution to the conflict,” Mr. Miller’s statement said.

The Biden administration has also spent more than two years pursuing a wider regional deal in which Saudi Arabia and Israel would establish formal diplomatic relations for the first time if Israel committed to the creation of a Palestinian state and the U.S. entered into a security agreement with Saudi Arabia.

With Israel still fighting in Gaza, and now at war in Lebanon, the prospects for such a deal during Mr. Biden’s presidency appear slim at best. But Mr. Blinken insisted last month that it was still a realistic goal.

It operates as a lender and financial services provider for civilians in many areas of Lebanon, where the traditional banking sector is in shambles. Many of its branches are situated on the ground floors of residential buildings, and it is deeply embedded in the Shiite Muslim communities it serves.

On social media on Sunday night, Avichay Adraee, the Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military, warned residents of Lebanon to evacuate buildings near the infrastructure of Al-Qard al-Hasan around Beirut and across southern and eastern Lebanon, saying that the organization “is involved in financing the terrorist activities of the Hezbollah organization against Israel.”

Soon after, the sounds of explosions could be heard ringing across Beirut, the Lebanese capital. A New York Times reporter saw dense plumes of black smoke rising in the near distance after the strikes.

The strikes marked an apparent escalation of Israel’s war against Hezbollah, with a senior Israel intelligence official saying the targeting of the banking system — rather than weapons depots or command and intelligence centers — was intended to disrupt Hezbollah’s day-to-day operations, undermine its support in Lebanese communities and hamper its ability to rebuild.

The financial organization has about 30 branches across Lebanon, including in the Dahiya, a densely packed area adjoining Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway.

Israel, the United States and others say that the group, despite its stated aims, serves as a front for Hezbollah financing. The group “purports to serve the Lebanese people” but in practice “illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators,” the Treasury Department said in 2021 when it was sanctioning individuals involved in what it called Hezbollah’s “shadow banking” network.

“In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah’s terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday evening.

Critics of the group say the organization allows Hezbollah to build up its influence with citizens in Lebanon while hobbling the state and putting Lebanon’s banks at risk of foreign sanctions.

A senior Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters said that Israel aims to disrupt Hezbollah’s day-to-day financial operations, including paying salaries of Hezbollah’s operatives, which all run through Al-Qard al-Hasan, and to undermine the trust between Hezbollah and the many Lebanese Shiite Muslims who use the branches as an alternative banking service.

Al-Qard al-Hasan said in a statement on Sunday that Israel had exhausted “its bank of objectives and has chosen to threaten and target Al-Qard al-Hasan, the non-profit organization.”

Lebanon is still reeling from a severe financial and economic crisis that began in 2019.

In October of that year, the country was rocked with protests calling for a new government, leading to the prime minister’s resignation.

But the government and the country have yet to recover — and the financial crisis was exacerbated in the years that followed, first by the Covid-19 pandemic, and then by a massive explosion in the port of Beirut in the summer of 2020. Desperate Lebanese citizens have at times even tried to hold up banks where they are customers in an effort to get their money.

Last year, Hezbollah began launching attacks at Israel in solidarity with Hamas after that group’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel that ignited the war in Gaza. Israel and Hezbollah traded fire for many months in a steady exchange of strikes that seemed, until last month, to be designed to avoid an all-out war.

But Israel in September stepped up its attacks against Hezbollah, targeting its commanders and infrastructure in a series of intense strikes in and near Beirut and throughout southern Lebanon; more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, with the vast majority of those deaths occurring in the recent uptick in Israeli attacks. In October, Israel also launched a ground invasion into southern Lebanon that has led to the displacement of about a million people in Lebanon, according to local authorities.

On Sunday, residents of areas near branches of Al-Qard al-Hasan began fleeing after the evacuation warnings from Israel. Fatima Jneideh said she had evacuated her home just a few meters from a branch location in the Dahiya, an area near Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. “My brother is still home,” she said. “He refused to leave.”

Isabel Kershner and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut and Jerusalem.

The leaked documents, which began circulating on Friday on the Telegram app, were prepared in recent days by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for analyzing images and information collected by American spy satellites.

The documents, which are highly classified, offer interpretations of satellite imagery that provide insight into a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days.

For weeks, an Israeli attack has been anticipated in retaliation for the Iranian missile assault on Oct. 1. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said that the strike was in retaliation for the assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon; Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, killed in Tehran in July; and an Iranian commander.

The leaked documents offer a window into intense American concerns about Israel’s plans. U.S. officials are working to ascertain just how much material was leaked, and believe it was disclosed by a low-level government official.

The documents are dated Oct. 15 and represent only what analysts looking at satellite imagery could determine at that time.

Mr. Johnson said that he had spoken to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday “to encourage him,” and said the United States should stand behind Israel.

“We cannot equivocate,” he said. “We can’t appease Iran. Now is the time for a maximum pressure campaign.”

On Friday, President Biden was asked in Germany whether he knew when Israel planned to strike and what kind of targets it had chosen. “Yes and yes,” he said, declining to say more.

But his statement seemed to suggest that he and Mr. Netanyahu had reached some kind of understanding about what kind of targets would be hit; previously, Mr. Biden called on Israel to avoid Iran’s nuclear sites and its energy facilities. The president has repeatedly raised concerns that if those targets, Iran’s crown jewels, were destroyed, the conflict would quickly escalate.

Mr. Johnson’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the briefing on Sunday.

Julian E. Barnes, Ronen Bergman and David E. Sanger contributed reporting.