Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said he did not think Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement would escalate the fighting, telling the BBC that “a broader regional conflict has been deterred”.

“Right now, we see this conflict as contained between Israel and Hamas,” AFP quoted him as saying.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah it would “pay an unimaginable price” for any misstep.

The United States has sent two aircraft carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean.

 In this photo obtained from the US Department of Defense, the aircraft carriers Gerald R. Ford (L, front) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (R, front) — deployed by Washington — and ships in their Strike Groups sail in formation in the Mediterranean Sea, on Nov 3. — AFP
In this photo obtained from the US Department of Defense, the aircraft carriers Gerald R. Ford (L, front) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (R, front) — deployed by Washington — and ships in their Strike Groups sail in formation in the Mediterranean Sea, on Nov 3. — AFP

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