Hamas…Israel Conflict Day 320…Israel lauches major strike against Hezbollah ….

Within hours of the predawn back-and-forth, the two sides were using the language of containment. Hezbollah said its military operation had “finished for the day” with its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, denying that Israel had disrupted its attack.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while Israel had successfully intercepted the Hezbollah attack, “what happened today is not the final word,” and the Israeli military said it was still carrying out air attacks against Hezbollah targets.

For now, at least, the exchange of attacks fell short of the major escalation in fighting that many had feared after an Israeli airstrike killed Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander, in the Beirut suburbs last month. Iran has also warned it would strike Israel, which it blamed for the killing of a Hamas leader on its soil shortly after that, although an attack by Tehran hasn’t materialized, and officials there had indicated in recent days that a direct strike on Israel might have been placed on hold.

Still, the cross-border attacks early Sunday underscored the looming threat of a wider war in the Middle East, and added urgency to the Biden administration’s push to close a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, an effort to lower temperatures in the region.

Here’s what else to know:

• Israel’s attacks: The Israeli military said roughly 100 of its fighter jets bombed more than 270 targets in southern Lebanon, a figure that could not independently be verified, and Mr. Netanyahu said many rockets pointed toward Israel had been destroyed. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesman, said Hezbollah had intended to fire a few hundred rockets at northern Israel and launch unmanned drones at the center of the country. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said that at least three people had been killed and two others hurt in Israel’s attack. An Israeli Navy officer was killed in the Hezbollah strikes and two other service members wounded, the military said.

• Hezbollah barrage: Hezbollah later said it had fired more than 320 rockets at nearly a dozen Israeli military bases and positions. If confirmed, it would be one of the largest barrages since the war in Gaza began last October. An Israeli military spokesman said that Israel had largely thwarted the strikes, that no military bases were hit and that there had been “very little damage.”

• Regional tensions: Concerns of a wider conflict in the region have been elevated in recent weeks, following the assassinations of Mr. Shukr and Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed on July 31 during a visit to Tehran. Israel claimed responsibility for the airstrike on Mr. Shukr in the Beirut suburbs, saying it was a response to a rocket from Lebanon that had killed 12 people, including children, playing soccer days earlier. But Israel has remained silent about the other killing. To show support for Israel and in a bid to deter Iran, the United States has steadily moved Navy forces closer to the area, including two aircraft carrier groups and a guided-missile submarine.

• Hassan Nasrallah: The Hezbollah leader justified the wait in responding to the killing of Mr. Shukr by pointing to the ongoing Gaza cease-fire talks, saying that Hezbollah had sought to give a chance for the negotiations to succeed before going forward with its attack. If Hezbollah had indeed succeeded in its attack, he said, the militia would not seek further revenge. But if it turned it to have been a failure, he added, then Hezbollah reserved the right to respond at a later date.

• Gaza talks: Officials from the United States, Egypt and Qatar — who are mediating the talks — held talks in Cairo on Sunday with an Israeli delegation to discuss the latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza. Hamas leaders were also in Cairo, according to a person briefed on the issue, but were not participating in the meeting. Despite a full-bore diplomatic push from the Biden administration, Israel and Hamas remain far apart on key issues, leading officials to conclude that an immediate breakthrough is unlikely…..

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“In the past hour, we identified extensive preparation by the Hezbollah terrorist organization to fire toward the Israeli Home Front,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a recorded statement posted on X at the time of the strikes. “After extensive identification, the [Israeli air force] and Northern Command began proactively and broadly striking Hezbollah targets in order to remove the threats aimed at the citizens of Israel.”

A senior American defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Sunday that the United States was not involved in the strikes but did provide Israel with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to track incoming attacks by Hezbollah.

Sean Savett, a U.S. National Security Council spokesman, said President Joe Biden was “closely monitoring” the situation. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke Sunday with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s defense against any attacks by Iran and its regional partners and proxies,” according to a readout from the Pentagon.

Both sides signaled a desire to stop short of all-out war, at least for now….

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Iran Update, August 25, 2024

Aug 25, 2024 – ISW Press

Lebanese Hezbollah conducted a drone and rocket attack on Israel on August 24 in response to Israel killing a senior Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr. Hezbollah fired 200-300 projectiles, including around 20 one-way attack drones, in two waves into Israel. Hezbollah fired rockets at 11 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sites in northern Israel in the first wave of its attack. These sites included a prominent IDF air defense and communications site on Mount Meron, which Hezbollah has targeted repeatedly since October 2023. Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said that the rockets were meant to distract Israeli air defenses and enable the second wave to penetrate deeper into Israel.