Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put it best.
“Challenging days” lie ahead for Israel as it braces for an armed response from Iran and its regional proxies following its recent assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the chief political figure in Hamas, and Fuad Shukr, the highest-ranking military commander of Hezbollah.
This is indeed is one of Israel’s most perilous moments as its enemies gang up on it.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken believes that an attack by Iran and its surrogates in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen is imminent and may begin within the next 48 hours or less.
In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin has said that the United States would “certainly help defend Israel” in the event of Iranian aggression.
Within the last few days, he has ordered an aircraft carrier, cruisers and destroyers, and a squadron of fighter jets to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to defend not only Israel but U.S. bases in Jordan, Syria and Iraq.
According to theWall Street Journal, the foreign ministers of Jordan and Lebanon, in hastily-arranged trips to Tehran, attempted to defuse the crisis, but Iran appears determined to punish Israel, regardless of the consequences.
In precise, pin-point strikes on July 30 that humiliated and enraged Iran and Hezbollah, Israel killed Haniyeh and Shukr within a 12-hour span in Tehran and Beirut, just hours after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s inauguration.
Iran and its allies in the Axis of Resistance immediately promised vengeance in a coordinated assault on Israel.
Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it was its “duty” to avenge Haniyeh’s death. He threatened to inflict a “harsh punishment” on Israel since “he was martyred in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Pezeshkian said that “the Zionists will soon see the consequences of their cowardly and terrorist act.”
Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’ foreign policy director, vowed that Hamas “will pursue Israel until it is uprooted from the land of Palestine.”
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, said that its conflict with Israel had entered “a new phase,” and that its military reaction would come all at once or in incremental strikes.
Realizing that Iran and the Axis of Resistance are hell bent on vengeance, Netanyahu said on July 31, “We are ready for every scenario.” Israel would “exact a very heavy price for any aggression against us,” he added.
Yesterday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel is ready both offensively and defensively. “We are prepared very strongly in defence, on land and in the air, and we are ready to move quickly to attack or to respond. We will exact a price from the enemy, as we have been doing in recent days. If it dares to attack us, it will pay a heavy price.”
Iran last attacked Israel directly on April 13, when it launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, the vast majority of which were intercepted by Israel, the United States and a coalition of nations comprising of France, Britain and Jordan.
Iran and its allies fired about 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles at Israel in a bid to cause serious damage.
Iran specifically targeted two remote Israeli targets: the Nevatim air base in the Negev desert and an intelligence center on the Golan Heights.
Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets, while the Houthis launched several drones and missiles.
Iran’s assault, its first direct strike on Israel, came 12 days after Israeli aircraft bombed an annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, killing seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, including two generals.
Ninety nine percent of the Iranian projectiles were downed, but a Bedouin girl was seriously injured and the Nevatim facility was slightly damaged.
On April 18, Israel retaliated, hitting an Iranian Air Force base near Isfahan.
Israeli officials have acknowledged that Iran and its allies, this time around, may well cause more damage and inflict a greater number of casualties on Israel than in April.
Certainly, Iran and its surrogates will try to hit army and air force bases, destroy critical infrastructure and target civilians.
As an Israel Defence Force document states, Israelis can expect power outages, water supply breakdowns, landline and cell phone disconnections, and disruptions to radio and the internet.
The Institute for the Study of War, citing Iranian state media reports, thinks that Iran and the Axis of Resistance will conduct coordinated strikes on Israel at the same time as Iranian forces.
Drones and missiles also launched from Lebanon and Syria would be much harder to intercept than projectiles from Iran, given the shorter distances and flight times to Israel. It would take Hezbollah drones around 15 minutes to reach Haifa and around 40 minutes to reach Tel Aviv.
Even as it faces attacks from Iran and its proxies, Israel is still waging a protracted war in the Gaza Strip, fending off attacks by Hezbollah, fighting Palestinians in the West Bank, and dealing with terrorism on the home front.
On August 5, Israeli forces killed Hamas’ economy minister, Abdel Fattah al Zari’i, in an air strike. But in an unmistakable sign that Hamas is far from finished, an Israeli truck driver was lightly injured by a rocket near Kibbutz Re’im fired from Khan Younis. In the last few days, Hamas has launched around 40 rockets at Israel
On the same day, Hezbollah launched a barrage of drones at northern Israel, striking Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar and wounding two soldiers. Two days earlier, Israel killed Ali Abd Ali, a Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon.
On August 3, Israeli drones killed a Hamas commander and eight of his operatives in the West Bank town of Tulkarem. Since October, Israel has carried out more than 55 air strikes in the West Bank, arrested 4,400 Palestinians and killed 590, the vast majority of whom have been gunmen. During this period, 23 Israelis in the West Bank have been killed.
On August 4, a lone wolf Palestinian terrorist from the West Bank who had entered Israel illegally went on a rampage, fatally stabbing two Israelis in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. He was killed by police.
Clearly, Israel has its hands full.