Why has Iran held back on Israel?

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has suffered devastating losses to Israel, but Iran has responded 'meekly' so far

Illustration of Benjamin Netanyahu, Masoud Pezeshkian and Ali Khamenei against a background of explosions in Lebanon, and social media posts
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (left) has ramped up the rhetoric against Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian (right) and supreme leader Ali Khamenei (centre) in recent times
(Image credit: Illustration by Stephen Kelly / Getty Images)

Earlier today, the White House warned that Tehran was "imminently" preparing to launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel. The report comes as Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah appear to be spiralling toward all-out war, with their long-standing conflict escalating significantly in recent weeks. 

Last Friday, Israel delivered the "biggest blow" to Hezbollah by killing its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a massive airstrike on Beirut, said the BBC. The strike followed weeks of intense Israeli operations against Hezbollah, in which Israel has reportedly killed "more than a dozen top commanders" and destroyed "thousands of weapons" through airstrikes. 

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 Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.