Hezbollah begun attack on Israel on Monday as anticipated

BEIRUT, Lebanon

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched a drone attack early Monday on northern Israel that the Israeli military said wounded two Israeli troops and set off a fire.

The violence came as fears of an all-out regional war mount following the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah said in a statement it targeted a military base in northern Israel in response to “attacks and assassinations” carried out by Israel in several villages in south Lebanon.

The attack did not appear to be part of a more intense retaliation expected in response to the killing of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Beirut last week.

The Israeli military said fire services were working to put out a fire that was ignited as a result of the attack in Ayelet HaShahar in the upper Galilee.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, but they have previously kept the conflict at a low level that had not escalated into full-on war.

Last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and Hezbollah commander Shukur in Beirut raised tensions in the region. Israel has been bracing for a retaliation from Iran and its allied militias.

In a Sunday conference call, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 countries that an attack by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel could begin as early as Monday.

The purpose of the call was allegedly to coordinate US's closest allies and make last-minute attempts to put diplomatic pressure on Iran and Hezbollah to minimize their retaliatory actions.

Blinken also told G7 foreign ministers that the buildup of US forces in the region was for defensive purposes only, the sources said.

It was announced on Sunday that the US military will deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Friday, as Washington seeks to bolster defenses following threats from Iran and its allies Hamas and Hezbollah.

According to the sources, Blinken said that the goal is to limit the impact of the attacks by Iran and Hezbollah on Israel and emphasized that this is the best way to prevent an all-out war.