Hezbollah retaliation is now almost certain. In the past, the heavily armed and Iran-backed group responded to the killing of its senior members by raining down rockets on Israel.
Just before Hezbollah's announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged in a televised address that “difficult times lie ahead.”
“Since the Beirut strike, we have been receiving threats from all sides. We are prepared for any scenario,” he added.
Early Wednesday morning, the political leader of the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas was killed in an attack in the Iranian capital.
Israel has not commented on this, but has pledged to destroy Hamas after an attack in southern Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,200 people.
Fear of a regional war has led the international community to call for restraint from all parties.
There have been regular battles between Hezbollah and Israel, but hostilities escalated after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Hezbollah, which supports Hamas, has established a limited second front in northern Israel, and the two sides have been fighting ever since.
Although it has not yet reached full-scale war, the near-daily attacks have devastated communities in Israel and Lebanon.
