BEIRUT — Israel signaled a return to “business as usual” today, a day after its aircraft struck targets in Syria for the second time in 48 hours in an unprecedented escalation of Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel after a meeting of his security Cabinet and arrived in China for a scheduled visit today, a possible indication that Israel does not expect an immediate retaliation.

Syria and its patron Iran have hinted at possible retribution for the strikes, though the rhetoric in official statements has been relatively muted.

Still, the back-to-back airstrikes, though not officially acknowledged by the Israeli government, raised new concerns about a regional war.

Israeli officials have indicated they will keep trying to block what they see as an effort by Iran to send sophisticated weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia ahead of a possible collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Israel has repeatedly threatened to intervene in the Syrian civil war to stop the transfer of what it calls “game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah, a Syrian-backed group that battled Israel to a stalemate during a war in 2006.

Since carrying out a lone airstrike in January, Israel had largely stayed on the sidelines. That changed over the weekend with a pair of airstrikes.