Israel is attempting a risky strategy, increasing the intensity of its attacks in an attempt to force Hezbollah to back down, while raising the chances of an aggressive response that devolves into a land war.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant did say on Wednesday, however, that his country's war with Iran's so-called proxy groups in the region had entered a "new phase," announcing a shift to the north of Israel after 11 months of intense conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

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.