The regime is trying to quell such fears. There has been no mass call-up or testing of air-raid sirens. But state radio and tv are playing martial music. Nationalist symbols are replacing religious ones. Iranian flags and the slogan “For Iran’s honour” are on the streets.

Israel’s defence minister has said Hezbollah has been left “battered and broken” after a bombing campaign that killed most of the group’s military leadership including Hassan Nasrallah, its chief since 1992.

Russia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Hezbollah was still organised and had not lost its chain of command despite strikes by Israel which Moscow said was trying to stoke an armed conflict across the Middle East.

Following Hezbollah's success at striking the Haifa area on Tuesday, the IDF later Tuesday and early Wednesday significantly increased its pace of airstrikes to try to roll back the groups' rocket attacks.