In the hills of northern Israel, a tank emerged from its hiding place beneath the pines, leaving the musk of churned earth hanging in the air.
Here on the border with Lebanon a conflict is brewing, one that the West is so desperate to avoid that President Biden has sent two US aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean.
Hezbollah, the well-organised Shia militia based in southern Lebanon, is under pressure from Iran to join the war that Hamas, the Sunni militia based in Gaza, initiated when it broke out of the territory to butcher Israeli civilians two weeks ago.
