The Middle East, a chronically unstable region, is even more on edge now. Israel has intensified military responses to attacks by two terrorist groups in separate areas. On its northern border with Lebanon, Israel is responding forcefully to months of missile launches by Hezbollah, a militant group, that forced 60,000 to 70,000 Israelis out of their homes. Further south in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave alongside Israel, a campaign aimed at Hamas militants is one year old this week. In recent days, Israel has pounded the small territory with bombs and artillery. "This is really code red time in the Middle East," says New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

The barrages and ground combat in Gaza by Israeli Defense Forces began in response to vicious attacks on families, music festival attendees and other civilians on Oct. 7 last year. About 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas fighters and 251 hostages were seized in cross-border raids that caught Israel off-guard. The year-long counter-offensive has killed more than 41,000 Gazan residents and fighters, according to Palestinian health authorities. (Gaza, a small territory under Israeli occupation since 1967, is inhabited by mostly Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Hamas, founded in 1987, is a political organization with a military wing, Its name is Arabic shorthand for the Islamic Resistance Movement.)

Clashes widened late last month when Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon after two weeks of intense airstrikes, escalating tensions in a conflict that risks drawing in the United States and Iran (a backer of Hamas and Hezbollah). An Israeli air strike in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, two weeks ago killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the group's secretary-general since 1992. "The military code name for the operation was New Order, hinting at Israel's ambitious goals of changing the reality across its borders," a New York Times reporter wrote last week from Jerusalem, Israel. A week before that assassination, Israel injured or killed hundreds of Hezbollah members by remotely blowing up their digital pagers and walkie-talkies.

Bombs continue falling on Beirut after Israeli warnings that civilians should leave certain areas controlled by Hezbollah, which began striking northern Israel after the Gaza war began last October. The group's stated goal was to bog down Israeli forces in support of Hamas, its ally in Gaza. (Lebanese clerics started the political party and militant organization to fight a 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.) In retaliation for the Sept. 27 assassination of Hezbollah's leader, Iran last week fired nearly 200 missiles at Israel. Most were blocked by the Israeli Air Force, partly with help from U.S. Navy ships offshore. Israel vows to retaliate as the deadly cycle continues. "The long-feared wider war in the Middle East is here," a New York Times news analysis said last week. "It has turned into one of the region's most dangerous moments since the Arab-Israeli War of 1967. The main questions now are how much the conflict might intensify, and whether the United States' own forces will get more directly involved.”

The overall situation has deep roots. After World War II and the Holocaust, international pressure mounted for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, leading to the creation of Israel in 1948 with United Nations support. That displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and sparked the continuing conflict. Gaza became a refuge for Palestinians who fled or were expelled in 1948. The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in at least one part of historic Palestine. Many peace negotiations have taken place, but a long-term agreement hasn't been reached.

Israeli government says: "Make no mistake: Those who harm the people of Israel will pay the price." – Social media post last week

Scholar says: "Hezbollah has been backed into a corner by Israel. Even if its military arsenal remains intact, its ability to deploy it has been curtailed." – Lina Khatib of Chatham House, a London research center

Diplomat says: "From Israel's perspective, we have been in a regional war since Oct. 7, and that war is now an all-out war. We are in a war for our national survival, period." -- Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States