Israel's astonishing attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon on Tuesday culminated in the explosion of thousands of Hezbollah terrorists' pagers. It left at least nine dead and 2,800 injured, according to the latest reports.

But it left many wondering why it wasn’t followed by a larger offensive incursion into Lebanon, from which Hezbollah has for the past 11 months launched near-daily rocket and drone attacks that have driven tens of thousands of Israeli civilians from their homes in northern Israel. For months, Israelis have been bracing for a second-front war against Hezbollah, the Washington Free Beacon's Andrew Tobin reported in March, and Tuesday’s events raise obvious questions about what Israeli officials intended to communicate about their intentions.

We asked some of the smartest foreign policy experts we know what they made of the situation. Here’s what they said.

Israel has a long history of using explosive phones and other devices to kill terrorists, according to Ronen Bergman's Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations. In 2001, Israel blew up a pay phone used regularly by Iyad Haradan, an Islamic Jihad commander. In a 1996 operation, the Mossad planted an explosive cell phone on Yahua Ayyah, Hamas's top bomb maker at the time. As far back as 1972, Israel planted a bomb in a telephone used by Mahmoud Hamshari, a terror leader who was assassinated in Paris.