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. Israel launched a major attack with strikes early Friday that set off explosions in the Iranian capital of 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.

Israel's strikes on Iran's nuclear and military sites have pushed the long-simmering rivalry into open warfare, with Tehran retaliating and hitting key Israeli cities. With the US trying to balance diplomacy and deterrence,

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?

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

U.S. stock futures are higher even as fighting between Israel and Iran spiked oil prices. Futures linked to the blue-chip Dow rose 0.36%, while broad S&P 500 futures added 0.42% and tech-heavy Nasdaq futures gained 0.

Israel said on Monday that it had struck the command center of Iran’s Quds Force, a special military unit that coordinates support for Iranian allies in the Middle East and reports directly to the country’s supreme leader.