Israel aimed at Hashim Safieddine, a cousin of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, as the war in Lebanon expands.

Game theory suggests that ultimately, the weaker party — Iran and its proxies in this case — is the one responsible for preserving deterrence, Sobelman said. “The onus is on the weaker actor to restrain the stronger side,” he said, by acting in a way that shows that an all-out conflict would lead to intolerable harm.

Iran’s supreme leader has praised the country’s recent missile strike on Israel and said it is ready to do it again if necessary

Tension have spiked in the Middle East after Iran's missile attack on Israel this week. Fears rose that Israel's military intends to retaliate "significantly" and swiftly after Iran fired almost 200 missiles at Israel,

Iran has rarely looked more on the back foot after weeks of Israeli attacks that degraded its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas. And Tehran’s barrage of some 200 missiles fired at Israel on Tuesday was judged “ineffective” by the US.

Asked if he would support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday was unequivocal: “The answer is no.” Some hawks in Israel have nevertheless been debating whether its air force should carry out such a strike in retaliation for the barrage of 180 ballistic missiles that Tehran fired into Israel this week.