Israel, Hezbollah trade rocket fire, avert war

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What happened

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged their heaviest fire in years yesterday as Israeli fighter jets struck thousands of missile launchers in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah sent hundreds of rockets and drones into Israel. The intense cross-border skirmish was a "dramatic but contained escalation that stopped short of all-out war," The Washington Post said.

Who said what

Hezbollah's attack was a "preliminary response" to Israel's July 30 assassination of top commander Fuad Shukr, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday in a televised address. The group could strike Israel again if it determines the damage "was not satisfactory," but "for now we consider the response over." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the preemptive airstrikes were "not the final word," though an Israeli military spokesperson said almost all Hezbollah rockets and drones were shot down and the attack did "very little damage."

Three Hezbollah-aligned fighters were killed in Lebanon during Israel's attack and one Israeli Navy officer died. But the "heavy firepower and lack of civilian casualties might allow both sides to claim a sort of victory and step back" from a "long-feared war," The Associated Press said. Hezbollah wants "to say that we've registered a response," Mohanad Hage Ali, a Beirut-based fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center, said to The New York Times, "and now move on from this phase of anticipation of a wider escalation."

What next?

Hezbollah "has said it will halt its attacks along the border if there is a cease-fire in Gaza," the AP said. But Israel and Hamas left another round of Gaza peace talks in Cairo yesterday with no agreement.