For weeks, Israelis have been waiting in fear for a major attack by Hezbollah in response to Israel’s assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut last month, Fouad Shukr, amid widespread fears that the cross-border escalation could escalate into a full-blown regional war, The New York Times reported Sunday.

"But much of Israel woke up Sunday to find that, at least in the short term, the long-awaited offensive appeared to be over almost before it began," the newspaper reported.

Both Israel and Hezbollah were quick to claim some sort of victory: Israel for what it called its pre-dawn preemptive strikes against what the Israeli military described as thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon; and Hezbollah for its subsequent launch of a barrage of rockets and drones into northern Israel, which the Israeli military said killed a naval officer.

By the time the iftar meal was over, both sides were using the language of containment, the paper reported. Hezbollah announced that it had completed the “first phase” of its offensive to avenge the assassination of senior commander Fuad Shukr, and appeared to have ended the offensive, at least for now. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said he had spoken with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and that they “discussed the importance of avoiding regional escalation,” according to a statement from Galant’s office.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Sunday evening that his group had attacked an Israeli intelligence base, the Glilot base, just north of Tel Aviv. He said that if the results of the attack on the base were satisfactory, Hezbollah would consider the response satisfactory.

He added that if the attack turned out to be a failure, Hezbollah reserved the right to respond at a later time.

After the attacks, the Middle East remained tense, and the coming days are uncertain.

Later Sunday morning, the Israeli military said it was continuing to strike Hezbollah rocket launchers from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is estimated to have tens of thousands of rockets and a smaller number of more advanced and accurate missiles.

“Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, still has an open score to settle with Israel, blaming it for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of its ally Hamas, while he was in Tehran, just hours after Fuad Shukr was killed. Israel has officially claimed responsibility for Shukr’s assassination but has not taken responsibility for Haniyeh’s assassination.”

In remarks broadcast at the start of a government meeting on Sunday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the morning's events "were not the end of the story."

According to experts at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a front for the Israel lobby in Washington, Israel made the decision, based on intelligence, to preempt Hezbollah’s attack on Sunday “but not overtake it.” The targets Israel struck were all less than 30 miles inside Lebanon, said Ehud Yaari, an expert at the institute. Israel said it focused on thwarting the threat to Israeli forces and civilians from Hezbollah’s arsenal of rockets and drones, not its broader assets or infrastructure.

“Hezbollah seems to consider it over now, but at the same time, they say this was the first stage of revenge, leaving the option open to do more, if they get the green light from the Iranians,” Yaari says.

Sunday's events have raised the stakes for negotiators meeting in Cairo to try to reach a ceasefire and release hostages in the ongoing war in Gaza. The United States, along with Qatari and Egyptian mediators, is leading efforts to reach a deal that would end the 10-month conflict between Israel and Hamas, hoping such an agreement would help calm tensions in the region.

No agreement was reached on Sunday in talks in Cairo for a ceasefire in Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said, as neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to several solutions put forward by mediators, raising doubts about the chances of progress in the latest U.S.-backed effort to end the 10-month-old war.

For months, Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in cross-border clashes. According to official statements by the party, Hezbollah began firing in solidarity with Hamas after the Hamas-led attack on the Gaza envelope last October, which sparked the war on Gaza. The skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah have intensified in recent weeks, in what many analysts have described as a war of attrition.

Experts say a full-scale war between Israel and Hezbollah would be devastating for both sides, as Hezbollah's missiles are capable of reaching large parts of Israel and could paralyze important parts of it for weeks or even months.

“But the group must weigh its desire for revenge against the risks of a backlash at home in Lebanon, which is already mired in political and economic turmoil,” the paper said, noting that Israel has long been preparing for war in Lebanon and may be better prepared than it was on its southern front, when Hamas surprised it on October 7.

Netanyahu claimed that the Israeli occupation army destroyed thousands of short-range Hezbollah missiles on Sunday and intercepted a swarm of drones that he said Hezbollah launched at a strategic target in the center of the country.