The United States helped the Israeli military monitor the firing of rockets and drones by Lebanon’s Hezbollah toward Israel early this morning, but did not intervene directly, a senior US Pentagon official said.

“The United States did not engage in Israel’s pre-emptive strikes last night. We provided intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to track the hits that came from Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that US help to counter those attacks “was not necessary.”

At the same time, a top US military official, Wing Commander Charles Brown, arrived in Tel Aviv hours after the major cross-border clash between Israel and Hezbollah.

Brown, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is expected to hold meetings with senior Israeli military officials.