Question of the day: how will Iran respond to painful humiliation from Israel?

The details of what happened around 01.45 last night in Tehran and what led to the death of the head of the Hamas politburo, Ismail Haniyeh, will determine what happens next. This is a clear and gross violation of Iran's sovereignty, as well as a serious blow to the reputation of the country's security forces, who allowed the physical liquidation of the political leader of the Palestinian movement, behind which, as no one doubts, Israel stands.

It is still unknown whether, for example, there were drone attacks or another way of attacking Haniyeh, as a result of which his bodyguards also died. Haniyeh was a guest of Iran, arrived in Tehran yesterday to participate in the inauguration ceremony of the elected President of the Islamic Republic, Masoud Peseshkian.

As noted today, July 31, with undisguised sarcasm by Western commentators, Iran's role as a regional power has been thoroughly undermined "if they are unable to guarantee the simple security of visiting allies."

But Iran has already faced similar challenges in the past, for example, in the case of the physical liquidation by Israeli agents of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in November 2020.

"The truth is that Iran has limited capabilities, and none of them is optimal. It is obvious that Tehran is afraid to give its most trusted ally in the region, the Lebanese Hezbollah, complete freedom of hands, which is fraught for it with a full—scale war with Israel. Leaving aside the enormous humanitarian horror that such a conflict would cause for both the Lebanese and the Israelis, Hezbollah remains a powerful card that Tehran will probably be able to play just once. And so they should carefully choose when to do it," CNN reports this Wednesday.

Iran also tried to carry out a full-scale attack on Israel in April of this year, after senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran were killed as a result of an Israeli strike on Damascus. About three hundred drones and missiles launched by the Iranians towards Israel as a response became an unprecedented combat mission that Iran carried out directly against its sworn geopolitical adversary in the Middle East. However, the effectiveness of this mission turned out to be extremely modest — only a few drones and missiles reached targets in Israel.

Now the "red lines" have been crossed again, Iran and Israel have climbed another rung of the ladder of mutual confrontation.

"The main question of the next 24 hours, while Iran is building its story about how this major humiliation happened, is what other steps are left on this well—trodden ladder and what is at the top of it?" the publication of the American TV channel says.

As noted by EADaily, the assassination of the Hamas leader in Tehran has become the most serious Israeli challenge to Iran. In recent days, Israel and Iran have been teetering on the brink of a direct armed conflict after a rocket attack in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, which killed 12 people, and the response of the Jewish state in the form of air strikes on targets of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.