A picture of Israel’s intentions for Lebanon is beginning to emerge: No ground invasion is imminent; instead, the aim appears to be to restore deterrence and degrade Hezbollah to the point where it’s incapable of continuing the rocket and missile attacks it’s been making on Israel since Oct. 8 last year.

That's all reasonable for a small country that has essentially lost the use of its northern territories and suffered a massive blow to its reputation for security prowess, by failing to either anticipate or prevent Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage. And yet, as Israel’s generals know better than most, this kind of operation is also difficult to control; the other side gets a vote and rarely reacts as hoped.

All this has clearly been long in preparation. Even if — as some reports have suggested — the decision to detonate booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies was precipitated by fears they would be discovered, events have moved quickly since. On Thursday, Israel claimed its air force had taken out 100 loaded rocket launchers close to the border, ready to deliver the revenge Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised the same day.