The Israeli military claims that Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, was killed in Fiday’s airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon.

The Iranian government isn’t guided solely by precedent. It knows that a head-to-head contest with Israel is a recipe for disaster.

Ali Karki, the commander of Hezbollah’s southern front, was among several senior figures also killed in the attack, the Israeli military claimed, along with Abbas Nilforushan, a prominent general in Iran ’s paramilitary guard, according to Iranian state media reports.