At a minimum, Iran hopes to put an end to Israel's targeting of senior Iranian commanders and its humiliating covert operations on Iranian soil. It is too early to determine if Iran can achieve any of these objectives. A key question now is how the bilateral rivalry fits into the wider regional picture.

Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel, the Israeli military said. The attack included 170 drones and 30 cruise missiles and at least 110 ballistic missiles. Some 99% of the incoming barrage was intercepted either outside Israeli airspace or over the country itself, Israel said.

There were seven countries with active armed conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa in 2019 (the same as in 2018): Egypt (high-intensity, subnational armed conflict), Iraq (internationalized civil war), Israel (low-intensity, extrastate armed conflict), Libya (internationalized civil war), Syria (major ...