European Observatory to Combat Radicalization – EOCR
Israel mulls response to unprecedented Iranian attack as West urges Netanyahu to avert all-out war
CNN — Israel’s three-man war cabinet is weighing the country’s response to an unprecedented overnight barrage of drone and missile strikes from Iran, which threatens to tip the crisis in the Middle East into an untempered regional war.
The war cabinet has been authorized to decide how to respond to the attack, with one of its members – Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – warning that the event is “not over yet.”
Gallant said the attack had been “thwarted this attack in a way that is unparalleled” but added “we must be prepared for every scenario.” In his first comments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “we have intercepted, we have contained. Together we shall win.”
Israel will respond to Iran’s attack, but the scope of that attack has yet to be decided, an Israeli official told CNN on Sunday. The official said Israel is yet to determine whether to try and “break all the dishes” or do something more measured.
But Israel is being urged by Western allies to de-escalate an intensely fraught situation on Sunday and close, at least for now, a weeks-long chapter of uncertainty and confrontation that had spiraled out of Israel’s war with Hamas that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza and caused a humanitarian disaster in the enclave.
Israeli forces fire rockets from their Iron Dome defence system near the southern city of Sderot to intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, on May 13, 2023. Israeli air strikes battered Gaza again on May 13 in response to rocket fire from militants as deadly fighting resumed after a night of relative calm, despite efforts to secure a truce.
Iran’s retaliatory attack had been anticipated since a suspected Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria earlier this month, and finally came late on Saturday when over 300 projectiles – including around 170 drones and over 120 ballistic missiles – were fired toward Israeli soil. Israeli authorities said “99%” were intercepted with help from allies including the US, the UK and France. The only injury reported was a 10-year-old girl who was seriously wounded by shrapnel from an Israeli interceptor.
The reprisals brought years of clandestine conflict between the countries into the open, and marked the first time the Islamic Republic had launched a direct assault on Israel from its soil.
Israel and Iran have long been rivals, but tensions escalated in the wake of Hamas’ attacks on Israel, which left about 1,200 people dead. Iran backs a web of proxies across the Middle East that have frequently clashed with Israel since the attacks.
Iran says next attack could be ‘much bigger’
On Sunday, Iran said a “new equation” in its adversarial relationship with Israel had been opened, and warned of a “much bigger” assault on the country should Netanyahu decide on a tit-for-tat attack.
“We have decided to create a new equation, which is that if from now on the Zionist regime attacks our interests, assets, personalities, and citizens, anywhere, and at any point we will retaliate against them,” the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami told Iranian state TV. The “Zionist regime” is a term Iran uses to refer to Israel.
Earlier Sardar Bagheri, the Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, said: “If the Zionist regime responds, our next operation will be much bigger.”
Iran’s attacks targeted the Israeli airbase from which, it said, the strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus was launched from. Iranian ballistic missiles that reached Israel fell on the airbase located in southern Israel, and caused only light structural damage, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
Bagheri said that from Iran’s perspective, the military operation against Israel “has concluded.” But he emphasized that Iranian armed forces remain on high alert and are prepared to “act if necessary,” according to an interview on state IRINN TV on Sunday.
Those warnings came as Western nations urged Israel to descend from the brink of open warfare with its foe.
After the attack, US President Joe Biden spoke by phone with Netanyahu, and made clear that the US would not participate in any offensive operations against Iran, a senior White House administration official told CNN.
Biden told Netanyahu he should consider the events of Saturday night a “win” as Iran’s attacks had been largely unsuccessful, and instead demonstrated Israel’s “remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks.”
Biden has meanwhile reiterated that the US’s commitment to Israel’s security against threats from Iran and its proxies remains “ironclad.”
Calls for restraint have also been made across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, a major regional rival to Iran, stressed the importance of “preventing any further exacerbation” of the crisis, while Qatar, which enjoys close economic relations with Iran, expressed “profound concern.” The United Arab Emirates warned of “new levels of instability” if the episode was not closed.
Iran had vowed to retaliate after accusing Israel of bombing its diplomatic complex in Syria earlier this month.
The airstrike destroyed the consulate building in the capital Damascus, killing at least seven officials including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, Iran’s foreign ministry said at the time.
Zahedi, a former commander of the IRGC’s ground forces, air force, and the deputy commander of its operations, was the most high-profile Iranian target killed since then-US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.
European Observatory to Combat Radicalization – EOCR
