For years, Hezbollah chief Nasrallah has boasted that his group’s weapons could reach deep into Israeli territory, AFP reports.

“Each side is carefully measuring its actions and reactions to avoid a situation that may spin out of control and spread to the region,” said Michael Young from the Carnegie Middle East Center.

But if Hezbollah fully entered the war, “Lebanon’s devastation would turn most communities, perhaps even large segments of the Shia community”, against it, he warned last week.

“We are waiting impatiently… We hope he will announce war on the Israeli enemy and the Western countries that support it,” said Ahed Madi, 43, from the border town of Shebaa.

Rabih Awad, 41, from the southern town of Rashaya al-Fokhar, said a new war between Hezbollah and Israel “would be a death blow for Lebanon”, which is grappling with a crushing economic crisis.

“I am against the war of extermination on the Palestinians in Gaza,” he told AFP. “But the decision to go to war must be taken by the Lebanese state, not a party or a militia.”