Hezbollah’s retaliation for the killing of a senior commander appeared to be over before it began. But analysts said tensions could escalate further.
For weeks, Israelis have waited in trepidation for a major attack by Hezbollah in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of a senior commander of the Lebanese group in Beirut last month, amid widespread fears that a cross-border escalation could spiral into an all-out regional war.
Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said in a speech Sunday evening that his group had attacked an Israeli intelligence base, Glilot, just north of Tel Aviv. If the results of the attack on the base turned out to be satisfactory, he said, the militia would rest its case. In broadcast remarks delivered at the start of a government meeting Sunday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel declared that the morning’s events were “not the end of the story.” But by then, life in Israel had largely returned to routine.
The events Sunday have raised the stakes for negotiators gathering in Cairo to try to advance a ceasefire and hostage-release deal for the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The United States is leading the push, along with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, for a deal that would end the 10-month conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the hope that such an agreement could help calm tensions in the region.
But the group must weigh its desire for revenge against the risks of a backlash at home in Lebanon, which is mired in political and economic turmoil.
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