Amid fears of an expanding war in the Middle East following mass detonations of bombs surreptitiously planted in Hezbollah communication devices, Israel continued its assault on the Iran-backed militia overnight.

The immediate context for the attacks is the “low-intensity war” between Israel and Hezbollah since October 7, with the cycle of violence triggered by Hamas’s mass killings inside Israel and then the Israeli military operations killing more than 41,000 people in Gaza.

Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets Friday, a day after the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the militant group said.