Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets into northern Israel on Tuesday as the group's Deputy Secretary-General Naim Kassem issued a defiant address vowing to defeat Israel's operations in Lebanon. More Israelis in the north of the country will be displaced as Hezbollah expands its operations, he said.

The U.S. military has not been directly involved in attacks on Gaza, and Washington has pushed unsuccessfully for a ceasefire there. But the U.S. is Israel's largest weapons supplier and has supplied billions of dollars in military aid in the last year as part of a longstanding agreement.

Israel appeared to label much of northern Gaza as an evacuation zone and in Lebanon, Israeli airstrikes targeted Hezbollah strongholds, as the region also braced for Israel to hit back at Iran.