US fears Middle East conflict growing as Israel and Hezbollah exchange attacks as Gaza ceasefire deal teeters

US officials are publicly and privately urging their Israeli allies to avoid escalating the back-and-forth strikes that have been taking place for months between the IDF and the Lebanese militant movement Hezbollah, arguing the fighting could turn an already deadly two-party war in Gaza into an even worse regional conflict.

«We are concerned about an increase in activity in the north. We don’t want this to escalate to a broad regional conflict and we urge de-escalation,»  Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Taleb Sami Abdullah, known as Abu Taleb, near the Lebanon-Israel border. The strike prompted the Iran-backed militia and political movement to fire over 200 missiles into Israel today in response, its largest attack since the October 7 conflict between Israel and Hamas began.

“Our response after the martyrdom of Abu Taleb will be to intensify our operations in severity, strength, quantity and quality,” senior Hezbollah official Hachem Saffieddine said during a funeral for the slain militant on Wednesday. “Let the enemy wait for us in the battlefield.”

Israel, in turn, reportedly conducted heavy bombing raids in southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

The conflict could quickly pull in other regional actors if not contained, according to experts, due to the complex web of alliances and rivalries across the region.

Iran backs a variety of governments and militia groups from Yemen to Lebanon to Syria, all of whom have hostile relationships with Israel, and all whom, to varying degrees, are already involved in the Israel-Hamas war.

In April, a suspected Israeli strike demolished Iran’s consulate in Syria, killing two Iranian