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.
