Lebanon's Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip, with repeated escalations during more than 11 months of the cross-border violence.

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

The absence of a full-blown war in Lebanon has been touted as a core U.S. achievement, but now Washington’s grip on the crisis appears more tenuous than ever.