Did Israel retaliate against Hezbollah for attempted assassination of ex-defense chief? - analysis

Dozens of members of Hezbollah were seriously wounded on Tuesday in Lebanon's south and the southern suburbs of Beirut when the pagers they use to communicate exploded, security sources told Reuters.

A Reuters journalist saw hundreds of Hezbollah members bleeding from wounds in the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh.

According to reports, the pagers were called before the explosion for some period of seconds to increase the chance that whoever received the call would pick it up and be maximally wounded. Shortly before the explosions, there were reports of a special meeting between Mossad Director David Barnea and Netanyahu.

Lebanese health officials estimated up to around 3,600 wounded, with 200 in critical condition and eight killed from the presumed Israeli cyber attack on Hezbollah pagers. 

The news comes only hours after the Shin Bet revealed that Hezbollah recently attempted to assassinate a top former Israeli defense official in Tel Aviv.

The situation is far from clear and developing, but given the juxtaposition in the timing and the last few hysterical hours in Israel about a security situation with Lebanon, did Israel just carry out only its second attack on Hezbollah in Beirut of the nearly year-long war in retaliation for the Lebanese terror group's failed assassination attempt?

The last time Israel attacked Beirut was on July 30, when it assassinated Hezbollah military chief Fuad Shukr in retaliation for the terrorists' killing of around a dozen Israeli-Druze in Majdal Shams via rocket attacks in the North.

This almost led to a full-scale war between the sides on August 25. Still, the IDF managed a preemptive strike that substantially reduced Hezbollah's ability to fire more than a fraction of the rockets that it had wanted to use to attack Israel, including northern Tel Aviv.

Nasrallah's pledge 

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has pledged that any attack on Beirut will be met with a massive counter-strike.

Will he keep his promise, or will Hezbollah back down, given that this round started from its attempted assassination and given the IDF's success against Hezbollah on August 25?