Israel intensified its military campaign against Lebanon yesterday, reporting the killing of another high-ranking Hezbollah official as tensions across the region rose. Meanwhile, the United States revealed it was increasing its aerial support capacity in the Middle East and putting its troops on high alert in case of deployment.

This escalation came a day after a massive Israeli airstrike that assassinated Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Apart from Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s top commander in southern Lebanon, Ali Karake, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan also lost their lives due to the strike. Iran, that is a staunch supporter of Hezbollah, has vowed retaliation for what it called a “horrible crime” by Israel, promising that the attack would not go unanswered.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the Israeli attack and called for such massacres not to be tolerated in the “Axis of Resistance,” including Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah. The growing tensions have sparked various diplomatic initiatives as French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot visited Beirut, meanwhile Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is to hold meetings with Iran’s president in Tehran shortly.

Tehran also asked for an emergency sitting of the United Nations Security Council to deliberate over Israel’s military activities. On its part, Washington has also been engaged, where it hailed the Nasrallah assassination as a “measure of justice” even as it called for a peaceful resolution of the war. White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby stressed, that an all-out war with Hezbollah or Iran will only hobble efforts aimed at safely returning the displaced Israeli citizens to their homes.

Kirby also reiterated that though the Biden administration may not entirely coincide with Israel’s approach toward protecting civilians, U.S. aid for Israel’s security is a fact that will not be changed. “To Tehran, the Pentagon warned that if Iran or its proxies were to exploit the crisis underway to fire on American personnel or American or Israeli and coalition interests in the region, then the U.S. would respond with whatever measures are necessary.”.

In a separate statement, the Pentagon said it was increasing US air support across the region but did not provide much detail on the scale of the deployment. Over the weekend, US forces also conducted a series of strikes that allegedly killed 37 “terrorist operatives,” including members of ISIS and affiliates of Al Qaeda.

In the midst of continued heavy pounding from Israeli bombardment, Tel Aviv says it has killed over 20 members of Hezbollah, plus Nasrallah. Hezbollah sources say the body of the killed leader has been recovered, but no plans for his funeral have been finalized yet.

The assassination of Nasrallah led to mass protests all over the Middle East, demonstrations were held in Syria, Cyprus and even in Pakistan. This even led to creating a situation wherein Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai who holds himself as a strong critic of Hezbollah found himself saying that the death of Nasrallah had “opened a wound in the heart of the Lebanese”.

Apart from Nasrallah, Israel also claimed to have killed another member of Hezbollah’s central council, Nabil Qaouq, as its airstrikes continue to target dozens of locations in Lebanon. With over 1,000 people killed and 6,000 injured in just a week, Lebanon is reeling under bombardment. The government estimates that over one million people, a fifth of the population, have been displaced.

This time, though, as the situation deteriorated, rare criticism from Pope Francis: the Israeli attacks on Lebanon are “beyond morality.” He says an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and the entire region is demanded, recalling that “even in war, there is a morality to protect.”.