The attacks threatened by Iran and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah are expected to take place “on several fronts,” reported Israeli television station Channel 12. In addition to Hezbollah, other armed proxy groups of Tehran could also take part in an aggression against Israel.
These include the Houthi in Yemen and militias loyal to Iran in Iraq and Syria. The Israeli leadership is currently discussing possible responses to such a concerted attack. These include “the willingness to enter into an all-out war in this context,” Channel 12 said.
In response to a suspected Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah reportedly fired dozens of rockets at Israel. For the first time, Katyusha rockets were fired at the village of Beit Hillel in northern Israel, Hezbollah said. This was a response to Israeli attacks on villages such as Kafr Kila in southern Lebanon, in which civilians were injured.
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According to Lebanese security sources, around 50 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon at northern Israel. According to Israeli media, many rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, there have also been daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli military.
The scenario of a possible regional conflagration has been emerging since two high-ranking enemies of Israel fell victim to deadly attacks. On Wednesday night, an explosion in the room of a government guesthouse in Tehran killed Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniyeh. A few hours earlier, an air strike had killed the high-ranking Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut.
Israel claimed responsibility for the attack on Shukr, but has not yet commented on the attack on Haniyeh. Iran and Hamas blame the Jewish state for his murder.
US President Joe Biden fears that the killing of the Hamas leader could make it more difficult to reach an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of the hostages held by Hamas. According to the New York Times, Biden responded to a question about this in a conversation with journalists: “That didn’t help.” Haniyeh was one of the Islamist organization’s main negotiators in the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.
In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden expressed the view that Haniyeh’s killing came at an inopportune time, the newspaper reports, citing a US official.
Iran is threatening a harsh retaliatory strike. The militias in the region allied with Iran would also take part in this, said the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), General Hussein Salami. “The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime (Israel) and its supporters must reckon with the holy wrath of the resistance groups,” he wrote on the Revolutionary Guards’ website.
The exact circumstances of the killing of the Hamas leader are unclear. Iran has now once again contradicted reports in Western media that Israeli agents had planted a bomb in the guesthouse guarded by the Revolutionary Guards two months before Haniyeh’s trip and activated it remotely. According to the Revolutionary Guards, the attack was carried out with a short-range missile.
It remains unclear when the threatened retaliatory strike could take place. Statements from Tehran and Hezbollah repeatedly refer to the “next few days”. Israel can count on the support of the USA and other allies.
The threats from Tehran have raised fears that an attack this time could be broader and more complex than Iran’s attack on Israel in April, when Tehran attacked the Jewish state with more than 300 rockets, cruise missiles and drones in response to an Israeli attack that killed several Iranian generals in an Iranian embassy building in Beirut.
In the operation now expected, Iranian proxy groups in Iraq and Syria could attack US bases in eastern Syria, wrote the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) – in order to tie up Americans who would otherwise be deployed in the defense of Israel. According to local media reports, militias loyal to Iran have moved troops and rocket launchers from Iraq to Syria, near the US bases.
Ceasefire negotiations brought no progress
US President Joe Biden and other government members of Israel’s most important ally see the key to de-escalation in a ceasefire agreement for the Gaza war, which has been going on for almost ten months. However, the indirect negotiations for this, in which the US, Egypt and Qatar are mediating, are not making any progress. These are also expected to lead to the release of around 100 hostages still held by Hamas. The latest round of talks with Israeli and Egyptian participants on Saturday in Cairo brought no progress, Israeli media reported.
The mediators, but also Netanyahu’s closest associates, see the Israeli head of government’s blockade stance as the reason for the standstill in the talks. Channel 12 and the well-connected journalist Barak Ravid reported on a heated meeting between the prime minister and his negotiators last Wednesday, in which there were apparently shouting matches.
Ronen Bar, the head of the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet, is said to have asked Netanyahu to say openly if he did not want a deal. Netanyahu is said to have then insulted his employees as “cowards” who were working for the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, Jihia al-Sinwar.
Protesters who are pushing for an agreement to release the hostages keep accusing Netanyahu of blocking a Gaza agreement. Thousands of people also demonstrated on Saturday in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and other Israeli cities. According to the Times of Israel, former diplomat Eran Etzion said at a rally in Jerusalem that the deal was on the table, but that Netanyahu was blocking it “for political, personal and criminal reasons.”
Canada, meanwhile, warned its citizens against traveling to Israel. The Foreign Ministry urged Canadians to avoid all travel to Israel due to the “ongoing regional armed conflict and the unpredictable security situation.” The security situation could deteriorate further without warning.