Israel is attempting a risky strategy, increasing the intensity of its attacks in an attempt to force Hezbollah to back down, while raising the chances of an aggressive response that devolves into a land war.

Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets Friday, a day after the militant group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate against Israel for a mass bombing attack, the Israeli military and the militant group said.

While the daily fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated on several occasions, the enemies have been careful to avoid all-out war.

Israel said Friday that it carried out a “targeted” strike in a Beirut suburb where Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence.

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.

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon urged immediate de-escalation as hostilities rumbled on at the Lebanese-Israeli border on Friday, following Israel's most intense airstrikes in nearly a year of conflict with the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israel’s operation against Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria through booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies was years in the making, and its use now ramped up a high-risk campaign aimed at deeply disrupting the group.