Fears that the Gaza war could trigger a wider and more devastating Middle East war are growing as clashes with Iranian-backed Hezbollah intensify along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and Israel presses ahead with its plans for a ground incursion into Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas.

The fears spiked on Tuesday following a strike on a Gaza hospital that appears to have killed hundreds of people, triggering angry denunciations and calls for vengeance across the region. Demonstrators took to the streets in the West Bank, marched to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, and converged on Israeli diplomatic missions in Turkey and Jordan, blaming the strike on Israel, which has denied responsibility.

The bloodshed fueled already rising tensions between Israel and Iran, which backs Hamas along with an array of allied militias and proxies. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian warned before the strike that Iran’s militia allies in the “resistance front” could take what he called “preemptive action” to deter an Israeli ground offensive, and the risk is high that an incident such as this could prompt escalatory attacks in revenge. “We have to retaliate from Lebanon,” the demonstrators chanted in Beirut.

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