The United States has tonight launched a drone strike in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killing a senior leader of an armed pro-Iran group. Three people were killed in the attack, including a commander of the group that US officials say was behind recent attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria. In a moment, we'll speak to our international editor, Jeremy Bowen in Israel. But first, Ola Geeran is in Baghdad for us tonight. Ola, you're trying to get close to the scene of this attack this evening. What happened?

Well, this was an attack at 9:30 in the evening, Sophie. There were three audible explosions. We could hear them at our hotel. This is a time when people are out on the streets in Baghdad, when cafés and restaurants are open. Now, we got to the scene pretty quickly. There was a security presence already there of Iraqi police. We tried to approach the burnt-out wreck to speak to people and ask them about what they had seen and heard. We were We were very quickly surrounded. There was a lot of anger, a lot of hostility in the crowd, people telling us we were not welcome because foreigners were responsible for what had happened, for the attack on the Iraqi commander, and therefore, we, as foreigners, were not welcome at the location. Now, we were not harmed. We were able to pull back to an area where even more security forces were arriving, members of Iraqi SWAT teams. Then a crane came in to take away the wreckage of the car, and The crowd actually started following. Now, there have been calls tonight from Shia paramilitary leaders, pro-Iranian militia leaders, for their supporters to come out on the streets to show their anger.

There have been calls also for retaliation, specifically one militia leader saying, We want blood for blood. Now, US Central Command has said this was a necessary strike to protect American lives and that they would not hesitate to take further measures in the future. But we've already had one very angry response from the Iraqi military saying, This is a threat to sovereignty and to safety and security in the country, and it's hard to see how it can do other than increase the level of tension here.

Ola Guiram, with the very latest there from Baghdad. Thank you. Well, let's go to our international editor, Jeremy Bowen, who is in Jerusalem. Jeremy, just put in context how significant this escalation is tonight.

Well, it's clearly a serious escalation. The Americans are saying this is really about stability in sending a message to Tehran. It all depends what happens when the inevitable retaliation occurs and whether they do get, as all has said, blood for blood and whether that blood is American, because that will then prompt another American response without doubt. Now, the whole region is aflamed. Here in Jerusalem, the American Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has been meeting Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and also the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Nathan Yahoo. He's been trying to pull off Mr. Blinken, a diplomatic miracle, if you like, to close the gap between Israel's position on a ceasefire in Gaza and the position held by Hamas. Now, as well as that, there's concern about what's happening north of here on the border with Lebanon, where there has been an increasingly intense war going on since October the seventh When Israel says that if Hezbollah, the pro-Iradian group in Lebanon, doesn't pull back from the border, then it will take even more action. I've been up, right up to that frontier.

Israel's border with Lebanon feels isolated and empty. In Matula, Israel's most northerly community, the only residents left are mobilized army reservists. Here, they're surrounded on three sides by Hezbollah, Iran's powerful ally in Lebanon. One of the men who didn't want his face shown pointed to Hezbollah's positions.

A quarter of a mile, and then to the north is half a mile, the border with Lebanon, and then in the east of us, it is half a mile. Definitely can turn into a big war, and a big war with Hezbollah, it's not like Hamas. The real army, very trained, greatly equipped. Great intelligence, and they have a lot of experience, real experience in Syria.

Israel released video of their attacks and what they said were Hezbollah positions. Tens of thousands of civilians on either side of the border have been evacuated. The war there is intensifying. More urgent for Anthony Blinken is a ceasefire in Gaza. But Prime Minister Netanyahu doubled down, calling for total victory and dismissing the Hamas response to the US ceasefire proposal. The US Secretary of State still believes a deal is possible. At the HQ of the Rivals of Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, he repeated to President Mahmoud Abbasid, America wants a Palestinian state which Israel's leader opposes and reminded Israelis later that their suffering was no justification for killing Palestinian civilians.

That cannot be a license to dehumanize The overwhelming majority of people in Gaza had nothing to do with the attacks of October seventh. The families in Gaza whose survival depends on deliveries of aid from Israel are just like our families. They're mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.

Gaza is the key to stabilizing the Middle East. This is the occupied Golan Heights, another potential flashpoint where the borders of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria meet. Over on the Syrian side, you can see ruins from previous wars. Anthony Blinken warns, this is the most dangerous moment for the Middle East since 1973. Without a ceasefire in Gaza, the risks that a wider war will intensify remain very real. Israel has heavily reinforced its northern borderlands. This is a former Syrian base occupied by the Israelis since 1967. Inside the ruin, the head of the regional council, a retired colonel, was preparing for the worst.

If we go from here to where we're going, to Haifa, then they bomb us in Haifa. Then we go to Tel Aviv, then bomb us in Tel Aviv.

People prefer to move by night on the most exposed roads in Northern Israel, in places shielded by blast-proof concrete walls. Don't think of this war on the Lebanese border as a sideshow to Gaza. It could become even worse.

This is the most dangerous, the most unstable frontier in the Middle East at the moment. What started as a low-level war back in October has been intensifying, but all sides know how much worse it could get, not just causing great destruction in Israel and in Lebanon, but it's also got the capacity to ignite the region.

Of the whole Middle East, not just Israel's empty, evacuated northern towns, depends on breaking through the shock and hatred of war. So far, the diplomats are fighting a losing battle. Jeremy Bowen, BBC News in Israel.