CNN
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The past 48 hours have seen the most intense exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah in nearly a year of war in Gaza, with the Lebanese militant group firing projectiles deeper into Israeli territory than ever before.
On Saturday, Israel bombed nearly 300 Hezbollah targets, an operation it called preemptive to thwart a planned attack. Hezbollah meanwhile launched a salvo of rockets and other projectiles at Israel in retaliation for Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanon-based militant group, is reeling from two days of explosions targeting pagers and walkie-talkies used by its members, followed by an Israeli strike on southern Beirut that killed at least 45 people, including a top commander and other high-ranking operatives.
Here’s what we know about the escalating tensions.
What happened, when and where?
Lebanon was rocked by two similar surprise attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday afternoon, beepers exploded simultaneously in several regions of Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, and in several cities in the central Bekaa Valley, strongholds of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
Almost exactly 24 hours later, Lebanon was rocked by a second attack on Wednesday, when walkie-talkies exploded in the suburbs of Beirut and in the south of the country.
Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad estimated that the death toll from the two attacks stood at 39: 12 on Tuesday and 27 on Wednesday.
The explosive device attacks were followed by an Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday that killed at least 45 people, including top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil, and leveled a multi-story building in a densely populated neighborhood.
The events have put the region on a knife edge, with Hezbollah targeting northern Israel with a series of rockets and missiles overnight Saturday into Sunday, hitting deeper into Israeli territory than in other recent attacks. Hezbollah said the attacks were in response to repeated Israeli strikes in Lebanon that have led to the deaths of “numerous civilians.” Among the targets, Hezbollah said it struck an air base with Fadi 1 and Fadi 2 missiles, a long-range weapon that does not appear to have been used so far.
Most of the missiles were intercepted, but some fell, causing damage. The Israeli military reported impacts in Kiryat Bialik, Tsur Shalom and Moreshet near the port city of Haifa, about 40 km south of the border, marking one of the deepest direct strikes by the Iran-backed group since the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war.
Schools have closed in many parts of northern Israel and gatherings have been restricted.
Israel fired nearly 300 projectiles toward southern Lebanon on Saturday, in a preemptive operation, according to the army, against a planned attack by Hezbollah. Israel continued its strikes on Sunday, with the official Lebanese news agency (NNA) reporting two deaths Sunday morning in southern Lebanon.
Exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah have occurred regularly since the Gaza war began on October 8, the day after Hamas attacked Israel, in skirmishes that have long raised fears the fighting could escalate into a broader regional conflict.
The main players have at times seemed on the brink, but tensions have eased given the serious consequences of an all-out war in the Middle East.
However, the intensity of attacks between Israel and Hezbollah seen in recent days is unprecedented, renewing fears of a wider war that could spread to the entire region, as well as to Israel’s main ally, the United States.
While the Hezbollah leader has previously said he does not want a full-scale regional war, experts said he could now come under increased pressure to act after the series of explosions, and as Israel is determined to shift its military targets to its northern border.
Israeli President Israel Herzog told Sky News on Sunday that Israel “is not interested in a war with Lebanon.” Instead, he blamed Hezbollah for the military escalation between the two countries.
Hezbollah has acknowledged that the attacks have weakened it, but shows no sign of backing down. Naim Qassim, the group’s second-highest figure after Hassan Nasrallah, said a “limitless battle” was now underway.
Hezbollah and Israel have been at war for decades, but the two countries have stepped up cross-border attacks on each other since last October, when the war in Gaza began following the deadly attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.
Hezbollah is part of a broader Iranian-led axis across the Middle East, spanning Yemen, Syria, Gaza and Iraq, that has engaged in a simmering conflict with Israel and its allies over the past 11 months.
The axis said it would continue to strike Israeli targets as long as the war in Gaza continues, presenting itself as a “support front” for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as a senior Hezbollah leader described it.
Israel may have chosen this timing for the attacks because it believed Hezbollah had discovered the pagers’ capabilities – making it a “use them or lose them” moment, an Israeli source familiar with national security said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may also have wanted to shore up his domestic support. Officials and residents in the northern region have become increasingly vocal about the need to return home after being evacuated due to attacks, putting pressure on the government to act against the threat of Hezbollah rockets from southern Lebanon.
On Tuesday, Israel made the return of northern Israelis to their homes near the border a new war goal, something long seen as a political necessity.
Speaking on Sunday, Netanyahu again stressed the need to ensure the return of Israeli citizens to their homes in northern Israel and to restore security in the region.
Speaking ahead of a government meeting, he said: “If Hezbollah has not understood the message – I assure you they will. We are determined to bring our citizens in the north back to their homes safely.”
