Exploding devices in Lebanon and escalating rhetoric from Israel's leaders have raised the specter of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel says that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the country's north to allow its residents to return to their homes there is now an official war goal as it considers a wider military operation in Lebanon.

The absence of a full-blown war in Lebanon has been touted as a core U.S. achievement, but now Washington’s grip on the crisis appears more tenuous than ever.