Israel decimated the group’s leadership last fall and degraded its military capabilities. Can the same strategy work against a far more powerful foe?

Israel and Iran have opened a new chapter in their long history of conflict when Israel launched a major attack with strikes early Friday on Tehran.

The most frightening scenario, considering the strategy Israel has employed in Lebanon, would be a series of attacks targeting lower-level figures, which could escalate to higher-level figures depending on the response or lack thereof, creating an even more frightening scenario than the current one.

What was the context for these attacks? What kind of damage has been inflicted? How has Iran responded? How has the world responded, and what happens next?

Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was among the senior Iranian officials killed in Israel’s sweeping air strikes that began on Thursday.

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah was long considered Iran’s first line of defense in case of a war with Israel.