The escalation of violence between Israel and Iran-backed proxies across the Middle East threatened to bring the combatants closer to an all-out regional war.

The Iran-backed group, whose leader Israel killed in an air strike on Friday, said its fighters launched a “rocket salvo” at Safed and a smaller location “in defence of Lebanon and its people and in response” to Israeli attacks on cities, villages and civilians.

Aboard an aging Boeing 707, thousands of feet above the Red Sea, I don a set of high-tech 3D goggles and stare at the small TV monitor recessed in a bank of retro dials and switches.