U.S. Forces in the Middle East Have Come Into Their Own Fire after the Hamas Attack: Israeli Response to Israel’s Attack
The member of the International Security Advisory Board at the US, Jeffrey Lewis, said that Iran was using missiles which could carry a ton of explosives.
Iran had weapons that can travel much farther than Saturday and some of them can travel very fast. Still, Israel said that nearly all of the missiles and drones that Iran fired were intercepted, many with help from U.S. forces.
After the attack by Hamas in October of last year, Israel asked the US for more precision-guided munitions for its combat aircraft and Iron Dome missile defense system. Some of Israel’s missiles have failure rates as high as 15 percent.
According to his post, different versions of that missile have also been provided to the Houthis in Yemen and to the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.
If it does respond to the Iranian attack of its own, Israel will have to decide if it should do so, in proportion to the actual results, which was largely blocked by the Iranians.
Governments in the Middle East, including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, also issued statements expressing concern and calling for restraint so as not to exacerbate tensions in the region.
On Saturday, the Secretary-General of the United Nations said he was very alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation after Iran’s attack.
In a statement Sunday, G7 leaders said that Iran had further destabilized the region and that they stood in solidarity with Israel. The United States, Canada, Italy, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the European Union are members of the G7.
Republicans also aim to include language that “holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced in a statement released Saturday night.
In Congress, House Republicans are making changes to their legislative schedule for this week to consider a yet-to-be-revealed proposal that would further support Israel.
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Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. wouldn’t participate in offensive operations against Iran, according to the defense official. Biden has made clear he does not want the Israel-Hamas conflict to turn into a larger regional war.
Iran’s English-language Press TV news site leads with a story about anonymous IRGC sources that said that all missile strikes against Israel hit targets. That claim was not immediately confirmed.
Iranian officials said the attack was in response to the air strike on Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month. Seven Iranian military officials, including two generals, were killed.
On Sunday, a senior Iranian military official said Iran’s “operation” against Israel had ended and there would be no more attacks coming, according to Iranian state media.
If the U.S. used any of its assets in the region to aid an attack on American targets, American personnel and bases would be legitimate targets for future attacks, warned Tehran. That warning was seen as possibly intended to fan fears abroad of a wider regional conflict.
Israel’s Arrow 3 air defense system provided the most protection against Iran’s missiles. The Arrow 3 has been around for many years, but had never faced such a bombardment.
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The Times of Israel and Haaretz reported that several people suffered from wounds from the attack, including a 7-year old Bedouin girl who needed surgery. Hagari confirmed the reports.
Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said the country notified the U.S. ahead of the attack through Swiss intermediaries, informing that the strike will not target American personnel or bases in the region. U.S. officials, however, said there was no notification from Iran prior to the attack on where weapons would be targeting.
On Sunday, Israel said its fighter jets struck an alleged munitions production site in southern Lebanon belonging to the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.
Israel has hit back hard in the past when it has been attacked. A cross-border raid in 2006 by Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group, kicked off a devastating monthlong war, and rocket barrages fired by armed groups out of Gaza have escalated into days of heavy fighting and destruction.
Iran had no other choice but to use its right to self-defense, according to Iran’s envoy to the U.N. Iravani said his county “does not seek escalation or war in the region,” and did not want to begin a conflict with the U.S.
Israel had several options to choose from as their leaders continued to consider a response to the Iranian attack over the weekend.
But other Israelis are urging restraint or so-called “strategic patience,” wary, among other things, of taking the nation’s focus away from its war with Hamas in Gaza, the efforts to release its scores of hostages there and its skirmishes with Hezbollah along its northern border, as well as the risk of setting off a broader regional conflict without international support.
The Iranian attack on the Nevatim Airbase in Israel: What is going on in Washington and what Israel’s doing after IRGC?
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It will be discussed and planned over the coming weeks and months, what that might mean for the way Washington supports its closest Middle East ally and Israel’s approach to maintaining its own security.
The attack has also raised questions both in and outside Israel about what recent events mean in terms of Israel’s ability to deter attacks against it.
The IRGC’s “punitive operation” was said to be a “victory” by a lawmaker, Mojtaba Zonnouri, and that it humiliated the Israeli regime.
Praise for the Iranian attack spread far and wide. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian spoke by phone with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, and some Russian news sites quoted officials who were quick to applaud the attack too.
Israeli media reported that the Nevatim Airbase in southern Israel’s Negev Desert had been struck but no significant damage had been caused. Aside from this, any other possible damage in Israel from the attack so far is unclear.
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Israeli intelligence official and the attack on the Gaza Strip: “I can’t retaliate” the Iranians, or does Israel want the war?
There is a former top Israeli intelligence official named Sima Shine. She now runs the Iran desk at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. She says that this attack crosses the frontier from the standpoint of Iran.
“Iran never before did anything similar to that. I think it’s not only that it’s unprecedented. It’s also taking into account that… in spite of everybody telling the Iranians not to do it, they decided to do it and they took it upon themselves – the responsibility for escalation.”
An Israeli military spokesman said on Sunday that the leaders had approved plans for both offensive and defensive action.
One option looks possible, and the other would be better, according to Shine. Given that most of the missiles were intercepted and there wasn’t major damage, Shine says Israel could take the opportunity to de-escalate or postpone the response.
We’re in Gaza and fighting on the north, so don’t do it. We could either chose the better timing or not. But from what I hear – and I say it’s only, you know, open sources – it looks as if there is a feeling in the army, in the security establishment, that Israel cannot afford itself not to retaliate.”
She believes that the Iranian regime doesn’t want a war, and she hopes that doesn’t happen because of how it will impact the region. I believe the Iranian regime is aware of its economic difficulties and a lot of the population doesn’t like it. and I think they don’t want the war,” she said.