Nearly 24 hours after the simultaneous detonation of hundreds of pagers imported by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, followed by more explosions on Wednesday targeting walkie-talkies across Lebanon, in an attack attributed to Israel, political commentators and analysts were grappling with questions about the timing and what the consequences might be for the conflict on the Lebanese border.
The blasts occurred shortly after the Israeli security cabinet had approved a decision to expand the goals of the war in Gaza to include the return of tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from towns in the north that have been damaged by rockets fired by Hezbollah. That move potentially hands the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a casus belli if he decides to launch a ground invasion into Lebanon.
