Hezbollah militants on Wednesday rocketed into Israeli towns, clashed with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, and moved to heighten the already grim confrontation in the Middle East between Israel and Iran-backed forces. The United Nations reports that close to a million Lebanese have become displaced as a result of the violence.

Israeli evacuation orders now also affect approximately 25 percent of Lebanese territory, compelling more than 600,000 people to move inside Lebanon while driving 300,000 others out of the country. The UN warns that shelters in Lebanon are overcrowded: half of all this country’s public schools have been converted into emergency shelters for displaced civilians.

In an Arabic-language message, Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee urged civilians in southern Lebanon to keep away from strongholds of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. “For your safety, you are prohibited from returning to your homes until further notice,” he warned. The Israeli military has continued targeting Hezbollah sites in the region.

The conflict started over a year ago after a Hamas attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel retaliated with a military campaign against Hamas, which soon escalated to include Hezbollah in Lebanon after the group joined the fray, firing rockets into Israel. The cross-border exchanges of fire have since displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.

The operation in southern Lebanon is reportedly on the ground but is also meant for the evacuation of Hezbollah fighters and weapons from the border. Its ground invasion continues in Gaza, which has increased the military operations in the West Bank as Israel occupied. Undercover Israeli forces raided and killed at least four people in Nablus on Wednesday, at least according to the Palestinian Health Ministry report.

Tensions between Israel and Iran, the principal backer of Hamas and Hezbollah, have increased regional fears of further escalation. A week after Iran launched missiles at Israeli targets, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant issued a stern warning to Tehran: “Our attack will be deadly, precise, and above all surprising. Whoever attempts to hurt the State of Israel will pay the price.”

The United States had attempted to mediate several times for a ceasefire, but the American officials were left surprised by the sudden escalation of the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah. While relations between Israel and the U.S. are strained, it is reported that President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone on Wednesday for the first time in two months.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government is also trying to reach out to its Arab neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia, with whom it has had a history of rivalries. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told the press last week that even though it does not seek to go to war with Israel, it will continue to back militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, for those groups constitute what Iran calls the “axis of resistance.”.

Lebanon Hezbollah, heavily bombed by Israeli airstrikes, has been hitting back with missile attacks. On Wednesday, a Hezbollah rocket barrage killed two people in the Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, while six others were injured near Haifa.

With shelters in Lebanon full, humanitarian needs are piling up. The European Union sent three aircraft with aid to Beirut. Conditions are catastrophic: squalid conditions exist in the overcrowded shelters, where one finds little or no electricity, toilets, and poor facilities for women and children.