Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders in quick succession, indicating that Israeli intelligence has thoroughly penetrated the group. Israel has also bombed what it says are militant targets across large parts of Lebanon, killing over 1,000 people, a quarter of whom are women and children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Iran said the missile attack was in response to the targeted killing of Nasrallah, an Iranian general killed alongside him and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was killed in an explosion in Tehran in July that was widely blamed on Israel.
Iran may have felt it had to respond to avoid being seen as hanging its allies out to dry. It also appears to be trying to reestablish deterrence after the unspoken rules of its long-running shadow war with Israel have crumbled.