Israel launches air strikes on Iran
BBC by Sebastian Usher Middle East regional editor 26 October 2024

Extracts:

• Strikes on Iran military targets completed - Israeli army

The Israel Defense Forces says strikes on Iranian military targets have finished

Sinwar’s killing brings end of Gaza war within reach – if Israel can seize the chance
CNN world Analysis by Ivana Kottasová 18 October 2024

Extracts:

• Many Israelis blamed Netanyahu for the October 7, 2023 attack

It was also Netanyahu that agreed to release Sinwar from an Israeli jail in a 2011 prisoner swap – a decision that came to haunt himIn fairness,
Harel Chorev, senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, told CNN

• But while Sinwar’s killing may have brought Hamas to perhaps its weakest moment, destroying the militant group will not by itself guarantee a peaceful future
• Israel has killed several Hamas leaders in the past and the group has always managed to recover

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim alluded to the group’s determination to keep fighting, saying on Thursday
Meanwhile, Israel’s intense bombardment and deadly ground operation has turned most of Gaza into a wasteland
Thousands of children have been orphaned, maimed and traumatized

Israel now needs to ensure they can have a better future – otherwise it risks creating another generation susceptible to radicalization

Israel launches air strikes on Iran
BBC by Sebastian Usher Middle East regional editor 26 October 2024

Extracts:

• An anticipated attack:

This attack has been anticipated since Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles on Israel almost a month ago

In a statement announcing that the operation was under way, the Israeli military spokesman said Israel had the "right and duty" to respond and that its defensive and offensive capabilities were fully mobilised

Iranian state media has confirmed that explosions have been heard in the west of Tehran
The extent of the attacks and the precise targets are not yet clear

The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has released a picture of Netanyahu, in the operations centre of the military headquarters during the attack – I reckon, this guy is on a suicide mission

• Israel says it is conducting "precise strikes on military targets" in Iran
• The Israel Defense Forces say the strikes are in response to "months of continuous attacks from the regime of Iran" and after a barrage of Iranian missiles hit Israel on 1 October 2024
• A news agency close to Iran's Revolutionary Guards says that some military bases in the west and south west of the Iranian capital have been 'targeted'
• Syrian state news agency says Israeli air strikes have also targeted some military sites in central and southern areas of Syria
• Israel has not commented on reported strikes outside of Iran

Israeli military confirms strikes against Iran are over
CNN by Eugenia Yosef and by Jeremy Diamond 26 October 2024

Extracts:

• The Israeli military said it has completed,

• Decision to strike Iran came after weeks of deliberations: Israeli officials

Israel’s decision to strike what it described as Iranian military targets early Saturday morning came after weeks of deliberations within its security cabinet about the nature and scope of such an attack, Israeli officials said

Ultimately, Israel chose to strike only military targets

One Israeli official said they were targets
A second Israeli official described the decision as the result of a
That process also included multiple rounds of consultations with US officials, including a phone call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden

Israeli officials have yet to reveal additional details about the number and nature of the military targets but the Israeli military is expected to share additional details once the operation is concluded

Iran is yet to comment on the attack

‘Direct confrontation’ between Iran, Israel raises fears of regional war
Al Jazeera by Mohammed Jamjoom in Amman, Jordan and Resul Serdar Atas in Tehran, Iran 26 October 2024

Extracts:
The Israeli military says, it has carried out
Several explosions have been reported around Tehran. Iran’s Tasnim news agency says,
operation “Days of Reckoning”

• The Israeli military has carried out strikes on Iran, hitting around 20 sites over several hours in a response to the Islamic Republic’s October 1, 2024 missile attack on Israel
• An Israeli army spokesperson said the now-finished assault, which he named as operation “Days of Reckoning” attacked Iran’s “means of producing missiles” as well as surface-to-air missile systems and other air defence capabilities
• The Israeli raid has been completed and its objectives accomplished
• All Israeli aircraft returned safely to their bases
• Iran’s military has confirmed the Israeli strikes targeted military bases in Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran provinces, saying they caused only “limited damage”
• Iran’s military claimed its air defences limited the damage inflicted by Israel’s strikes
• The state-run IRNA news agency has said Iranian air defences have “successfully shot down adversarial targets in the airspace around Tehran province”
• Israel has warned Iran against retaliating, saying it will be “obligated to respond” again, adding it has “additional targets” it could strike should that happen
• A US National Security Council spokesman said Washington was aware of strikes by its ally but did not participate, describing the operation as an “exercise in self-defence”
• Israeli authorities have closed the country’s airspace until 8:30am local time but are yet to issue a state of alert to citizens
• Iranian authorities have also closed their airspace after the Israeli military carried out attacks on Iran in recent hours

‘Direct confrontation’ between Iran, Israel raises fears of regional war
Al Jazeera by Mohammed Jamjoom in Amman, Jordan and Resul Serdar Atas in Tehran, Iran 26 October 2024

Extracts:
Israeli attacks could involve more phases and more powerful strikes: Analyst
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft think tank, told Al Jazeera

• Iran is “ready to respond” to Israel’s attacks on the country, reports the semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing “informed sources”
• The agency, affiliated with the IRGCs, reports the sources as saying there is “no doubt” Israel will “receive a proportionate response to any action”

Now you have direct confrontation going on between Israel and Iran. That is not something that used to happen
1. It used to be a proxy battlefield
2. Now you have direct confrontation
3. And that is what’s so concerning to international actors, the US and to so many people in the region
4. The worry is about a wider regional conflagration at a time when tensions are at an all-time high

Al Jazeera October 26, 2024
Iranian air defence firing at drones

Iranian officials say the sounds of explosions in Tehran is the air defence system intervening – these are anti-aircrafts shooting at drones. We can confirm that the majority of these are drone attacks, not missiles or aircraft

The question is where these have been launched from, Israel or somewhere else?
Because usually, these aerial vehicles don’t have a long range.

Iranian officials are not reporting any casualties, they are saying that no military sites has been hit in a meaningful way.

Al Jazeera October 26, 2024

Israel wants war, but not ready for ‘a major war’ with Iran: Analyst
Foad Izadi, associate professor at Tehran University, has told Al Jazeera that Iranian analysts believe that Israel is not yet ready for a full-scale war with Iran.

“I think the Israelis are planning a major war against Iran, but not at this time,” Izadi said.
“Remember that happened to Lebanon. The Israelis attacked Lebanon after one year of preparation. They started a genocide in Gaza. They continued with that, and then after 11 months of starting the genocide in Gaza they started to attack Lebanon,” he said.

“They decided to postpone that because they needed time to plan that attack. The analysis in Iran is that the Israelis are not ready for a major military confrontation with Iran at this time,” he added.

“They may do it after one year or two years. I think the Israelis want to be in perpetual war, continuous war.”

Israeli attack so far appears to be robust but avoiding key infrastructure: Analyst
Ali Vaez, project director for Iran for the International Crisis Group, says Israel’s attack on Iran so far appears to be in the “mid-range” of its possibilities.

The strikes were “considerably more robust than its response to Iran’s previous attack in April, but not going as far as targeting key infrastructure or nuclear facilities”, Vaez told Al Jazeera.

“The questions now are,
1. first, whether this is the full scope of its response,
2. and second, whether Tehran will absorb the hit and try to draw a line under this exchange or
3. up the ante again with a counter-response,”
Vaez said, noting that Iran now has several options for its response, “each of which has major risks”.

Iran could now launch strikes against Israel and face another, likely bigger retaliation, Vaez said, or it could attack through the various groups aligned with the country, which have been weakened significantly in recent weeks.

Another option would be to target US interests elsewhere in the region “but then it will be facing not just Israel, but US as well”, he said.

Since the start of the war on Gaza, the US has deployed military equipment in the region, including advanced US air defence systems and aircraft.

These movements, Vaez said, had “two purposes:
1. Deter the Iranians from a response,
2. and defend Israel from a response if that fails

"It was just a scratch..."

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel attacked military targets in Iran with a series of pre-dawn airstrikes Saturday in retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired upon Israel earlier in the month.

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted facilities that Iran used to make the missiles fired at Israel as well as surface-to-air missile sites. There was no immediate indication that oil or missile sites were hit — strikes that would have marked a much more serious escalation — and Israel offered no immediate damage assessment.

Explosions could be heard in the Iranian capital, Tehran, though the Islamic Republic insisted they caused only “limited damage” and Iranian state-run media downplayed the attacks.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-p...26-2024-9c9f366c71c508e6dd0ee74cff8400d2

IRGC: ‘Iran preparing to respond to Israel attack with 1,000 missiles’

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/2...ond-to-israel-attack-with-1000-missiles/

The Guardian October 27, 2024
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel’s air attack on Iran was “precise and powerful” and achieved all its goals.

National security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said Saturday’s attack was “an opening blow” and strikes on the country’s strategic assets “must be the next step”.

The Israeli military said on Saturday morning it hit missile manufacturing sites and aerial defences in several areas and had completed its “targeted” air attacks, and that its planes had safely returned home.

Israel’s public broadcaster said three waves of strikes had been completed.

The Israeli strikes reportedly hit Iranian facilities used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles.

Satellite images obtained by Reuters appear to confirm that the Israeli attacks hit buildings that Iran used for mixing solid fuel for ballistic missiles.

Israel struck Parchin, a massive military complex near Tehran, as well as Khojir, a sprawling missile production site near the Iranian capital, the news agency reported, citing two US researchers.

Israel hit 12 “planetary mixers” used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles, which make up the bulk of Iran’s missile arsenal, Israeli sources told Axios.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog (IAEA) said Iran’s nuclear programme was not affected by Saturday’s strikes

The strikes were restrained enough for Iranian officials to belittle the scale and effectiveness of the incursion and for Israeli hardliners to denounce their government for timidity.

Israel’s military could have “exacted a higher price”, opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a post on X after the bombing ended.

Iran said its air defence system successfully countered Israel’s attacks on military targets in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam, with “limited damage” to some locations.

A semi-official Iranian news agency vowed a “proportional reaction” to Israeli moves against Tehran.

A billboard in Enghelab Square, Tehran, on Saturday.
The Persian reads: ‘If you want war, we are the master of war’
and the Hebrew: ‘Israel must be wiped from the face of the earth and this is the beginning of the story.’

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has made his first public comments since Israeli warplanes attacked military targets in Iran early on Saturday.

He said “The evil committed by the Zionist regime (Israel) on Iran this weekend “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed,” though he stopped short of calling for retaliation.

He described the Israeli airstrikes as “malignant”. He says it 'would be wrong to say Israeli attack did not matter'

“The calculation error of the Zionist regime must be disrupted. They do not know Iran, its youth, its nation.

They have not yet been able to fully comprehend the power, capabilities, initiative and will of the Iranian nation, we must make them understand it,” Al Jazeera quoted the Iranian supreme leader – the ultimate authority in Iran – as saying.

“It would be wrong for us to say that it was nothing and it did not matter,” Khamenei said, adding that Israel has tried to exaggerate the impact of the airstrikes.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said Hezbollah and Hamas are no longer effective proxies for Iran.

Gallant said Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, was no longer functioning as a military network in Gaza, while Hezbollah’s senior command and most of its missile capabilities had been wiped out.

He said both groups “are no longer an effective tool” to be used by Iran.

Hezbollah said it fired rockets at a military base in northern Israel on Sunday, a day after it declared several areas in the region a “legitimate target” due to the presence of Israeli troops.

The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group said it targeted a “military industries base north of Haifa (a northern city in Israel)... with a large rocket salvo”

Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said on Sunday, bringing to 36 the total number of Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the ground offensive in Lebanon on 30 September.

The troops all served with the Alon Brigade’s 8207th battalion.

Mr Gallant: They are still effective enough to kill them

Dozens of people injured after truck slams into bus stop, in central Israel’s Glilot, just north of Tel Aviv, on Sunday

Police said the truck driver rammed his vehicle into a crowd of people at a bus stop, injuring at least 24 people before he was “shot and neutralised”.

From: The Guardian October 28, 2024
Former Israeli PM promotes two-state solution;

Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, said the Israeli opposition parties needed to show the guts to speak out in favour of a two-state solution since they know it is the only alternative to more blood and killing.

His appearance in London at a conference this weekend did not go down well with some.

first Israeli premier to be imprisoned
Ehud Olmert is not an uncontroversial figure in Israel and internationally.

He was convicted of corruption in 2014 and in 2016 became the first Israeli premier to be imprisoned, capping a years-long legal saga that forced him to resign in 2009 during an intense round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, then released early, in 2017

From: Sky News October 28, 2024
Social media platform X suspends new Hebrew-language account for Iran's supreme leader

The social platform X has suspended a new account on behalf of Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that posted messages in Hebrew.

A note on the account says it has been suspended for violating X's rules:
The suspension comes hours after the account posted a message about this weekend's Israeli attack on Tehran.

The post said: "The Zionist regime made a mistake. It erred in its calculations on Iran.
We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has."

Mr Khamenei has previously had his Facebook and Instagram accounts removed by Meta over his support of Hamas after its 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.

Iraq has submitted a complaint to the UN over Israel's use of its airspace to strike Iran, a government spokesperson has said.
So now we know “howdunit”

Israel launched strikes against Iran over the weekend in response to Tehran firing nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this month.

Shortly after the attack, Iran's mission to the UN said Israeli warplanes attacked several Iranian military and radar sites from Iraqi airspace.

The UN Security Council is expected to meet today over the attacks.
The Swiss UN mission said the meeting had been requested by Iran with the support of Algeria, China and Russia.

Russia's support -- Never mind Ukraine
and as for the UN...

It's Iran's move now
The Associated Press by Adam Schreck Asia-Pacific news director 28 October 2024

• “Iran is boxed in”

Extracts:
How the Islamic Republic chooses to respond to the unusually public Israeli aerial assault on its homeland could determine whether the region spirals further toward all-out war or holds steady at an already devastating and destabilizing level of violence

In the coldly calculating realm of Middle East geopolitics, a strike of the magnitude that Israel delivered Saturday would typically be met with a forceful response

A likely option would be another round of the ballistic missile barrages that Iran has already launched twice this year -- Israel now got THAAD and 100 American troops operating it

Retaliating militarily would allow Iran’s clerical leadership to show strength not only to its own citizens but also to Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the militant groups battling Israel that are the vanguard of Tehran’s so-called Axis of Resistance

It is too soon to say whether Iran’s leadership will follow that path

Tehran may decide against forcefully retaliating directly for now, not least because doing so might reveal its weaknesses and invite a more potent Israeli response, analysts saysaid Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House

• Satellite images show damage from Israeli attack at 2 secretive Iranian military bases

Vakil said,
Even while the Mideast wars rage, Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been signaling his nation wants a new nuclear deal with the US to ease crushing international sanctions

It's Iran's move now
The Associated Press by Adam Schreck Asia-Pacific news director 28 October 2024

• Iran's third direct retaliation against Israel

Extracts:
A carefully worded statement from Iran’s military Saturday night appeared to offer some wiggle room for the Islamic Republic to back away from further escalation

• It suggested that a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon was more important than any retaliation against Israel

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate decision-maker, was also measured in his first comments on the strike Sunday
Khamenei said, but Khamenei stopped short of calling for an immediate military response

Saturday’s strikes targeted Iranian air defense missile batteries and missile production facilities, according to the Israeli military
With that, Israel has exposed vulnerabilities in Iran’s air defenses and can now more easily step up its attacks, analysts say

Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press indicate Israel’s raid damaged facilities at the Parchin military base southeast of Tehran that experts previously linked to Iran’s onetime nuclear weapons program and another base tied to its ballistic missile program However current nuclear sites were not struck

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that on X, saying
Israel has been aggressively bringing the fight to the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, killing its leader and targeting operatives in an audacious exploding pager attack

It's Iran's move now
The Associated Press by Adam Schreck Asia-Pacific news director 28 October 2024

• Israel's military precision and capabilities are far superior to that of Iran

Extracts:
Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, who expects Iran to hold its fire for now, says,
That’s true even if Israel held back as appears to be the case
Some prominent figures in Israel, such as opposition leader Yair Lapid, are already saying the attacks didn’t go far enough

Regional experts suggested that Israel’s relatively limited target list was intentionally calibrated to make it easier for Iran to back away from escalation

As Yoel Guzansky, who formerly worked for Israel’s National Security Council and is now a researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, put it:Israel’s target choices may also be a reflection at least in part of its capabilities
Besides, Israel still has leverage to go after higher-value targets should Iran retaliate — particularly now that nodes in its air defenses have been destroyed

Guzansky added,
Thomas Juneau, a University of Ottawa professor focused on Iran and the wider Middle East, wrote on X
Sanam Vakil, the director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the London-based think tank Chatham House Vakil agreed,

It's Iran's move now
The Associated Press by Adam Schreck Asia-Pacific news director 28 October 2024

• new red lines are nebulous and the old ones have turned pink

Extracts:
One thing is certain: The Mideast is in uncharted territory.

For decades, leaders and strategists in the region have speculated about whether and how Israel might one day openly strike Iran, just as they wondered what direct attacks by Iran, rather than by its proxy militant groups, would look like

Today, it’s a reality. Yet the playbook on either side isn’t clear and may still be / being written

Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group said,

A Battered Hezbollah Is Fighting a War It Never Wanted
The Washington Post by Nicholas Blanford 28 October 2024

• Hezbollah's fateful “support front” for deadly Hamas October 2023 attacks

Extracts:
On October 8, 2023 as Israel was reeling from the deadly Hamas attacks of the previous day, Hezbollah launched mortar rounds against Israeli outposts dotting the skyline of the mountainous Shebaa Farms area alongside Lebanon’s southeastern border

A Hezbollah statement declared that the attack was a gesture of support for the group’s Palestinian ally Hamas

It was the opening salvo in what was to become a sustained effort to try and alleviate the pressure on Hamas as Israel prosecuted its war in Gaza

However a year later, Hezbollah has become embroiled in a debilitating war that has seen Israel decapitate its top political and military leadership while leaving more than 2,000 Lebanese dead and many villages along the border so heavily damaged they have become uninhabitable

Regardless of how the current war ends, Hezbollah’s fateful decision—alongside that of the group’s backer, Iran—to open what it called a “support front” for Hamas in October 2023 will go down as the greatest strategic blunder the organization has made in its 42 years of existence

• terrorists Hamas inflicted the worst single-day loss of life for Jews since the Nazi Holocaust

Israel At War - Day 389 also Israel's fateful blunders including,
1. letting 7 October 2023 happen
2. fatal complacency
3. intelligence failure
4. asleep at the wheel
5. How many hostages are still alive
6. underestimating the terrorists and overestimating themselves
7. No more Fort Knox deterrence
8. Battered Israel fighting 7 fronted war, it never wanted
9. every front remains "undefeated" "unconquered" more than a year later

Israel passes legislation designating UNRWA a terrorist organisation
ABC Australia 29 October 2024

• United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

Israel bans UNRWA after staffer revealed as Hamas commander

Extracts:
Israel's Knesset has passed laws designating UNRWA as a terrorist organisation, cutting diplomatic ties with the agency and barring it from operating on Israeli soil

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said,
UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said,
Israel's parliament has passed legislation targeting the main UN agency UNRWA providing aid to people in Gaza

The new laws designate UNRWA a terrorist organisation,
1. cutting diplomatic ties with the agency
2. and barring it from operating on Israeli soil
3. prohibit ties between Israeli officials and the agency
4. and strip its staff of their legal immunities
5. ban UNRWA from conducting "any activity" or providing any service inside Israel

The legislation, which would not take effect immediately, risks collapsing the fragile aid distribution process at a moment when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening and Israel is under increased US pressure to ramp up aid

The legislation will take effect 60 to 90 days after Israel's foreign ministry notifies the UN according to the spokesman for politician Dan Illouz, one of the co-sponsors of one of the bills

The Times of Israel October 29, 2024
US urges Israel to rethink anti-UNRWA laws, warning millions at risk of ‘catastrophe’

US official blasts ‘disingenuous’ PM for saying Israel ready to work with international community on Gaza aid after approving laws that will crimp UN agency without an alternative in place

• Hezbollah's fateful “support front” for deadly Hamas October 2023 attacks

Shame Nasrallah and Sinwar are dead and not see their greatest strategic blunders and what they brought upon their own people
Shame on them

• "Iran is boxed in”

Netanyahu says Israel’s strikes on Iran destroyed ‘industrial factories of death’

A clear message to Iran: Your nukes and oil are next
Ayatollah Khamenei now understands the depth of Israeli intelligence capabilities and Iran’s own potential vulnerabilities

Iran’s Guards chief warns of ‘bitter, unimaginable consequences’ for Israel’s strike
Tehran says it will use ‘all available tools’ if any left -- to respond to targeted assault on military sites;

Iran has attempted to downplay the retaliatory strike launched by Israel on Saturday, almost four weeks after the Islamic Republic’s barrage of some 200 ballistic missiles.

The Israeli military said that the retaliatory attack had targeted strategic military sites — specifically, drone and ballistic missile manufacturing and launch sites, as well as air defense batteries.

Zelensky is jealous

The Kyiv Independent October 29, 2024
Newsweek October 16, 2024
U.S. Aid for Ukraine vs. Israel -- US Faces Israel-Ukraine Dilemma

THAAD is much sought after including by Ukraine to counter Russian missile attacks
"What works in the skies of the Middle East and helps Israel's defense can work just as well in the skies of our part of Europe – in Ukraine – helping to save lives," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on October 3

He said Ukraine's neighboring NATO countries could help shoot down Russian aerial targets over Ukraine too, but the partners "are not yet ready" for this.

The United States is not deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile battery to protect Ukraine, as it will do in Israel, given the different defense capabilities of the two nations, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at a briefing on October 15

Following Iran's recent attack on Israel, Washington authorized the deployment of the THAAD in the country to bolster Israel's missile defense capabilities. The advanced surface-to-air interceptor is designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.

The Pentagon has said it will not deploy the same anti-ballistic missile defense system (THAAD) to protect Ukraine as it will to Israel, as the U.S. faces the growing problem of how to provide weapons for two escalating wars.

Washington has been the world's biggest donor of military aid for Kyiv since Vladimir Putin invaded, but it faces a growing price tag for also helping Israel in the Middle East.

Israel is said to face a shortage of interceptor missiles and the Pentagon said Monday it would send the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery to bolster its air defenses against Iran, which launched a missile attack on the country on October 1

US doesn't defend Ukraine with THAAD system like Israel due to "different capabilities, different wars, different regions" "two very different landscapes and battlefields." different commitments to the countries, including a longstanding partnership with Israel US and Israel go way back 76 years

It raises questions over whether Washington helping to close gaps in Israel's protective shield against Tehran and its proxies could come at a cost for its support for Ukraine.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, Dana Stroul, has said that Washington "can't continue supplying Ukraine and Israel at the same pace. We are reaching a tipping point," The Financial Times reported.

From: The Warzone October 28, 2024
Israel’s deep strike capabilities

Israeli Strikes Knocked Out All Of Iran’s S-300 Air Defense Systems: Officials
The apparent destruction of the last three Iranian S-300s would pave the way for expanded Israeli airstrikes.

Israel’s Reprisal Strike Carefully Calculated, Unclear If Jets Ever Flew Over Iran
The operation was a balancing act of risk mitigation and deterrence that aimed to weaken Iran's offensive and defensive capabilities.

Israel’s retaliation strike on Iran targeted air defense positions and long-range weapons facilities.

Carried out primarily by the Israeli Air Force, it was a limited attack meant to weaken Tehran’s offensive and defensive capabilities and to highlight Israel’s deep strike capabilities.

The strikes on air defense sites, in particular, made Iran more vulnerable to a larger follow-up strike, a clear deterrent against further escalation.

By sticking to strictly military targets with few reported casualties, the operation also fell within the guidelines suggested by the Biden administration, and the threshold Iranian officials had previously suggested would result in no further kinetic actions.

the Israeli airstrikes appear to have involved air-launched ballistic missiles (ALBMs), with wreckage of at least one of these being discovered in Iraq. The same kinds of munitions were used in the spring of this year when another S-300 system was again the target.

Using these weapons, which include Rocks and Air LORA, the Israeli Air Force can strike deep into Iran, with considerable standoff distances ensuring that its crewed aircraft are not put in extreme danger.

It still remains unclear if any IAF aircraft flew into Iranian airspace, but some reports claim they did.

Even using only standoff munitions, this may have been necessary in order to reach targets in eastern Iran, although they may not have had to penetrate far.

At the same time, these weapons provide a combination of high accuracy and significant destructive power and are a major challenge to intercept.

Houthi attacks on ships
Houthi drones hundreds destroyed by US CENTCOM, Israel, UK -- hundreds more keep popping-up and "reckless acts of terrorism" on international shipping continue

From: Haaretz October 29, 2024
Yemen's Houthi rebels target ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Red Sea

Yemen's Houthi rebels targeted a ship traveling through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the Red Sea on Monday, though it escaped undamaged, authorities said.

The attack ended an 18-day lull in reported assaults attributed to the Houthis, who have been attacking ships traveling through the Red Sea corridor for nearly a year now over the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip.

The violence has disrupted international shipping through the region, once valued at $1 trillion in goods annually.

The vessel passing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which separates the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Peninsula from East Africa, reported the attack, the British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.

The ship's captain reported two explosions near the ship, though "the vessel and all crew are reported as safe," the UKMTO added.

The private security firm Ambrey also described the attack as involving "two close proximity explosions."
It said the vessel wasn't transmitting its position at the time, and it had a private armed security force on board, which many ships have chosen to do amid the Houthi attacks.

Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed the attack late Monday night.

He identified the ship as the Liberian-flagged bulk carrier Motaro and claimed without offering evidence the rebels hit the vessel.
He also claimed two other unreported attacks in the Arabian Sea, but offered no evidence they took place.

From: CNN October 29, 2024
Hezbollah names a new leader to replace Nasrallah

Hezbollah has named Shiite cleric Naim Qassem as leader, over a month after his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The group’s Senior Council elected Qassem as secretary-general, Hezbollah’s media office said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that Qassem is committed to prophet “Mohammed’s authentic Islam” and the core principles of the group.

Qassem now leads a group once regarded as Iran’s most formidable proxy in its conflict with Israel – a force that, in recent weeks, has been significantly weakened by Israeli strikes, with top leaders killed, thousands of fighters wounded, and missile capabilities degraded.

The group now faces an intense Israeli military campaign in southern Lebanon.

The cleric had long been the group’s second-in-command, serving as deputy chief to the late Nasrallah. He is one of the few leaders of the Iran-backed group to survive Israel’s recent onslaught on the organization, which saw some of its key figures assassinated.

Responding to the announcement, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant wrote on X:
“Temporary appointment. Not for long.” -- Don't get too cocky