Israel’s army reacted to an Iranian projectile strike by performing “precise strikes on military targets in Iran” on Friday, in a step that showed up to press the Middle East to a brand-new, much more unsafe and multi-front stage of problem a year after Hamas’Oct 7 strikes on Israel.
“The regime in Iran and its proxies in the region have been relentlessly attacking Israel since October 7th – on seven fronts – including direct attacks from Iranian soil,” the Israel Defense Force claimed in a declaration onFriday “Like every other sovereign country in the world, the State of Israel has the right and the duty to respond.”
Israel claimed its “defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilized.”
In Washington, the White House National Security Council released a brief declaration upon the information of Israel’s reaction.
“We recognize that Israel is performing targeted strikes versus army targets in Iran as a workout of protection and in reaction to Iran’s ballistic projectile strike versus Israel onOct 1,” spokesman Sean Savett said.
He referred other questions to the Israeli government.
Israel’s operation came after Iran fired around 180 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 in what Tehran described as a retaliation for Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah and other top Lebanon-based Hezbollah leaders. Most of Iran’s missiles were intercepted with help from the U.S. military. A Palestinian man was killed in the West Bank.
An all-out war between arch-foes Israel and Iran has been threatened for decades.
But the two regional powerhouses have been caught in an escalatory spiral after Hamas attacked communities in southern Israel last year, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 251. Israel responded by launching a war in the Gaza Strip that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, laid waste to Gaza and sparked an uptick in military actions against Israel by groups that Iran trains, funds and supplies with weapons to promote its interests.
These groups, sometimes referred to as Iran’s ” axis of resistance,” include Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Houthis rebels in Yemen and various Iraq-based militias. Among their shared interests with Iran are opposition to the state of Israel and a desire to drive western powers, chiefly U.S. troops, from the Middle East.
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Iran launched a barrage of more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in April. With U.S. and western allies, Israel shot down almost all of them. Over the summer, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated by a bomb hidden in the wall of a government guest house in Tehran. Israel is believed to be behind the assassination.
Yahya Sinwar, the elusive leader of Hamas regarded as the mastermind behind group’s brutal attack on Israel last year, was killed last week during an Israeli military operation in Gaza. His body was found in the rubble of a building. DNA testing confirmed his identity.
In recent days Israel launched what it characterized as a ” restricted” ground operation inside Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah weapons and infrastructure. Israel’s new strikes on Iran mean it is effectively fighting a war on multiple fronts against a web of non-state and state actors spread across four countries: Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
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President Joe Biden has ordered the U.S. military to aid Israel in its defense, a move that some national security experts believe risks pulling the U.S. into a war in the Middle East.
Rosemary Kelanic, Middle East director at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank that argues for a smaller global U.S. military footprint, said that surging more U.S. troops to the region recently has ” just motivated Israel’s brinkmanship and increased the danger of a battle with Iran that offers no united state passion.”
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Kelanic said that ” if the previous twenty years of unsuccessful plan have actually shown us absolutely nothing else, problem in the Middle East is mire. The much more the united state battles it, the much deeper we are attracted.”
“We will certainly do whatever required to protect the State of Israel and individuals of Israel,” the IDF claimed in its declaration.
This post initially showed up on United States TODAY: Israel introduces vindictive army strikes in Iran
