What to know about the Israel-Hezbollah conflict

In a speech on Monday, Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassam, described its current rocket, drone and missile attacks on Israel as “the bare minimum” and said it would “emerge victorious” after an Israeli ground offensive.

The group still has thousands of fighters, many of them veterans of combat in neighbouring Syria’s civil war, as well as a substantial arsenal of missiles, many of them long-range, precision-guided missiles that could reach Tel Aviv and other cities.

BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner says there will be pressure within its ranks to use those missiles before they get destroyed, but that a mass attack on Israel that kills civilians could trigger a devastating response.

The assassination of Nasrallah was also a huge blow to Iran, hitting at the heart of the regional network of allied, heavily armed militias known as the “Axis of Resistance” that is key to its deterrent strategy against Israel.

On Sunday, Israeli jets struck infrastructure in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hudaydah in response to recent missile and drone attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi movement.

Iran could ask the Houthis and other groups to step up their attacks on both Israel and US bases in the region. But whatever response it chooses, it will likely calibrate it to be just short of triggering a regional war that would draw in the US and which it could not win.

What might Hezbollah, Israel and Iran do next?

Iran warns Hezbollah leader’s death ‘will not go unavenged’