The chief of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah praised the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and vowed his group would step up military pressure on Israel in the coming days, but said it didn’t plan on waging an all-out attack for the time being, easing worries that the Israel-Hamas war could spread across the volatile region.

Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary-general, spoke for the first time since the attacks by Hamas, amid concerns the conflict on Israel’s southern end could ignite a separate war in the north against the Lebanese militant group. Hezbollah and Israel have been engaging in tit-for-tat exchanges of fire in recent weeks.