Israel stunned Iran last week with an intelligence and military operation years in the making that struck high-level targets with precision.

Israeli officials have been pushing the United States to join the fray and use its huge bunker-busting bomb to crush Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Whether the U.S. gets more involved than it already is, some members of Congress from both parties argue, should not be up to the President.

But Israel's formidable and sophisticated military forces - with an arsenal largely, but not exclusively, provided by the United States - are enabling it to overpower a much larger enemy. The BBC looks at the military balance in the latest war in the Middle East.

Israel claimed that it took 48 hours to gain aerial superiority over western Iran, including Tehran. Israeli authorities say that so far, one-third of the Islamic Republic’s missile launchers have been destroyed.

Just four days into its ferocious air campaign, Israel appears to have gained a decisive edge in its escalating conflict with Iran: aerial supremacy over Iran. The Israeli militar

The Israeli military's new "Barak Magen" air defense system intercepted eight Iranian drones after launching from a naval ship on Sunday night.

In total, Tehran has sent 370 ballistic missiles toward Israel, with around 30 hitting targets in the country, the Israeli government says.