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

The single-most-important leader in Iran’s constellation of allied militias, turned the Shiite militant group into the world’s most powerful nonstate armed force.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who led the terror group for more than 30 years, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Nasrallah, 64, was killed during a massive airstrike on the Iran-backed group's "central headquarters" in Beirut, Lebanon on Friday, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.