Elbahrain.net ith Israel vowing to retaliate for Iran’s massive volley of ballistic missiles fired at the nation on Tuesday night, capping a day of unprecedented military escalation in the area, the Middle East is moving ever closer to a full-blown regional war.
Hours after the historic attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “Iran made a major mistake tonight-and it will pay for it.”
With the largest-ever attack, Iran fired a barrage of over 200 ballistic missiles toward Israeli military locations, setting off Israel’s advanced defense systems and causing sirens to go up throughout the nation.
According to Iran’s leadership, the attack was launched to warn Israel against starting a direct conflict with its longstanding foe, and any Israeli counterattack would be greeted with “stronger and more severe” attacks.
The intensification occurred around a day after Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a raid on Beirut and a day after Israel began waging a land battle in Lebanon to target the potent militant organization that receives support from Iran.
Regional conflict intensifies
The attack on Tuesday has further altered the nature of the fight, turning it from a battle involving Iran’s proxies into a direct clash between the two strongest militaries in the region.
Several Iranian missiles hit Israeli military bases during the operation, an Israeli military source told CNN, but they said there was no significant damage to the infrastructure.
Although this year has seen two instances of Iranian aircraft attacks on Israel, the one that occurred on Tuesday was more intense.
Iran retaliated to what it believed to be an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria in April by launching a massive drone and missile attack on Israel, the first direct attack on the nation from Iranian land.
Iran was widely believed to have planned the attack with a 72-hour warning period in order to minimize casualties and maximize spectacle, as Israel’s defense systems managed to knock nearly all 300 rockets out of the sky.
A week later, Israel retaliated against Iran with a limited strike.
This time, Israel was made aware of the impending threat only a few hours before Tehran began the strikes, which included Tel Aviv, the country’s second-largest city, the headquarters of the Israeli espionage agency Mossad, Nevatim Air Base, and Tel Nof Air Base.
Iran’s Tuesday bombardment, according to Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, was twice as massive as the attack in April. Additionally, it contained a large number of additional ballistic missiles, which are more difficult to shoot down and actually posed a threat to Israeli citizens, many of whom fled to shelters during the attack.
Although the Israeli military claimed that the majority of the missiles were intercepted, some seemed to
Has Middle Eastern diplomacy failed?
The truce and hostage talks between Hamas and Israel have failed, and diplomacy has not been able to bring Israel and Hezbollah together to make an agreement.
Even until a few weeks ago, some senior US officials privately believed that through its diplomatic and deterrence efforts, Washington had helped to successfully thwart a large-scale Iranian attack against Israel, sources told CNN.
According to Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior intelligence analyst with expertise in the area, “I think Nasrallah was the final straw” for Iran.
The attack on Tuesday is arguably the strongest indication that a much-feared regional conflict may be set to break out because there is no escape route and Israel does not seem ready to make concessions to its adversaries.
In the meantime, the US and Israel both understated how successful the strike was. Attack “failed,” according to Israel.
After over a year of fighting, the region has been on the verge of full-scale violence multiple times due to rising escalations.
Israel’s ground invasion of southern Lebanon in recent days has created a whole new front for operations against other militant groups supported by Iran, including the commencement of airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
With a series of assaults and widespread airstrikes throughout Lebanon, Israel has removed Hezbollah’s leadership while also targeting the organization’s capabilities and infrastructure, resulting in the deaths of over 1,000 people, the displacement of over a million, and the destruction of houses and towns.
Nearly a year after Hamas attacked Israel, Israel’s assault on the Palestinian militant group rages on in Gaza. More than 41,000 people have died in the ensuing conflict, leaving much of the enclave in ruins and causing a dire humanitarian situation.
Since the start of the war, Israel and its allies have been assaulted by a coalition commanded by Iran that includes Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis and that spans Yemen, Syria, Gaza, and Iraq. They assert that until a ceasefire is achieved in Gaza, they will not stop attacking Israel and its allies.
What could happen next on both sides?
Iran has attempted to characterize its attack as a calibrated response to repeated escalations from Israel.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Tuesday’s missile strikes focused on Israeli security and military targets and was in response to Israel’s killing of Nasrallah and other commanders, including Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran in July.
Following the assassination of Hamas’ most public figure after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, the world held its breath as it waited to see how Tehran would respond.
For months, that response never came and tensions appeared to de-escalate given the grave consequences of an all-out war in the Middle East.
But Israel’s assassinations and the widening war in Lebanon has rapidly changed that equation.
