Since then, Hezbollah has continued to design its attacks to stay below the threshold of a full-scale conflagration. The group has continuously pressured northern Israel, forcing an estimated 80,000 civilians to evacuate their homes (creating a political challenge for the Israeli governing coalition) and forcing the IDF to allocate limited air defense,

The deadly, back-to-back pager/two-way radio attacks against Hezbollah, which killed dozens and wounded thousands of its operatives, undoubtedly signaled a new phase in the intense cross-border exchanges between the group and Israel.

Over the past week, Israel has detonated thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies carried by Hezbollah members in a highly sophisticated attack that killed at least 39 people and wounded 3,000. Then came hundreds of air strikes throughout Lebanon since Monday that killed at least 558 people,