Iran launched a barrage of hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening in an unprecedented attack that hit several cities and Israeli military sites across Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Iran stated that the attack was in retaliation for the Israeli assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut last week, in addition to IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, killed in the same strike, and Hamas politburo chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran last July.
Upon the conclusion of the Iranian missile attack, which took place in two closely timed “waves,” the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that there would be no more missiles “for now,” but that an Israeli retaliation would invite an even more forceful Iranian response.
The attack comes after over a week of escalations between Hezbollah and Israel following Israel’s exploding pager and electronics attacks earlier in September and the subsequent assassinations of most of Hezbollah’s top military command, including Hasan Nasrallah, Ibrahim Aqil — the commander of the elite Radwan Force — and over a dozen members of the Radwan leadership.
The Iranian attack occurred simultaneously with a shooting and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv carried out by two Palestinian men from Hebron in the West Bank, resulting in the death of 7 Israelis and the wounding of 17 others. The shooters were identified as Muhammad Masik, 19, and Ahmad al-Haymouni, 25, who had reportedly stabbed an Israeli security guard and used his M-16 assault rifle to carry out the attack.
Missiles hitting their targets
The Iranian attack saw at least 180 ballistic missiles launched toward Israel, many of which were filmed seemingly hitting their targets or being intercepted by Israel’s “David’s Sling” and “Arrow” air defense systems as sirens blared across most of the country. The U.S. also reportedly intercepted some of the missiles on their way to Israel, according to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Israeli military censorship has so far controlled the flow of information regarding the casualties and damage caused by the attack, which reportedly targeted, among other locations, Israel’s Nevatim Airbase (which houses its fleet of F-35 fighter jets) and the headquarters of the Mossad in Tel Aviv. However, several videos circulating online filmed by civilians, many of them Palestinians in the West Bank or Palestinian citizens of Israel, show dozens of rockets making impact with their targets.
Videos documenting the strikes indicate that they hit widespread areas. The Israeli army said in a statement on Wednesday that while military bases had sustained damage, no planes or soldiers were harmed in the attack. The army also claimed that Israel had intercepted a “large number” of them. Several hours before the attack, the U.S. had reportedly informed Israel that an Iranian attack was imminent. The U.S. also reportedly participated in intercepting some of the missiles.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the attack was “a significant escalation by Iran” and that “it is equally significant that we were able to step up with Israel and create a situation in which no one was killed.” Sullivan added that the attack “appears to have been defeated and ineffective.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an overnight statement that “Iran made a big mistake” and that it would “pay” for the attack, vowing that “whoever attacks us, we will attack them.”
Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari also said in an overnight statement that Israel would reserve the right to retaliate “at a time and place of our choosing.”
On Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Israel would face an even “harsher reaction” in the event of an Israeli reprisal.
In Lebanon on Wednesday, the Israeli army reported that eight Israeli soldiers had been killed in the cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The announcement of the soldiers’ deaths comes amid Israeli reports over the weekend that the Israeli army had launched a “limited ground invasion” into southern Lebanon, although the Israeli claims have not been definitively confirmed by third-party sources.
The Chris Hedges Report: Catastrophe in the Middle East
October 1, 2024
“Israel is going all the way and doing anything possible to push Hezbollah to go for an all out war,“ Israeli journalist Gideon Levy says in this interview.
By Chris Hedges
“It has become quite rare to hear any meaningful accountability for Israel’s actions from Israeli citizens themselves. Israeli journalist Gideon Levy is an anomaly in Israel by today’s standards, as for his entire career he has challenged the apartheid and occupation of the Israeli state.
On today’s episode of The Chris Hedges Report, Levy joins host Chris Hedges to discuss his book, The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe, and explain the spiritual destruction, both of Israel and Palestine, that the current genocide in Gaza is causing as well as the implications of new military operations in Lebanon.
The worst change, according to Levy, is that Israel has lost its humanity. “Everything is acceptable,” Levy tells Hedges as he describes the ongoing slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the brutal killing of prisoners, the censorship at the hands of the state and the overall indifference to it all.
“There is practically only one camp in Israel, the camp which supports apartheid and occupation,” Levy says.
There isn’t even any room left for empathy of the innocent victims in Gaza, according to Levy. Teachers have been subject to interrogation and termination because they “express[ed] empathy with the children of Gaza, with the victims of Gaza. Even this is not legitimate anymore in Israeli society 2024,” Levy contends.
Although the horrors following Oct. 7 are devastatingly unprecedented, Levy asserts that this entire catastrophe was years in the making and the meaningless gestures of advocating for a two-state solution, for example, will perpetuate it further.
In the first years following the war in 1967, the occupation of Palestinians as a way of life quickly became normalized, according to Levy. “[Palestinians] clean our streets, they build our buildings, they pave our roads and they will never have citizenship. The only people in the world without any citizenship of any state,” Levy says.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/10/01/the-chris-hedges-report-catastrophe-in-the-middle-east/
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists discusses the elephant in the room:
Iran vs. Israel redux: The enormous difficulties and ramifications if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear sites…A range of bad options. The possibility of Iranian weaponization and Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites could lead to a serious escalation spiral and, potentially, a wider military conflict in the region….
https://thebulletin.org/2024/10/iran-vs-israel-redux-the-enormous-difficulties-and-ramifications-if-israel-attacks-irans-nuclear-sites/
A sky news reporter speaks to professor Muhammad Marandi in the wake of missile strike, enjoy
https://nitter.poast.org/KevorkAlmassian/status/1841415735102316931#m
Six Things to Know as Israel Ramps Up Its Assault on Lebanon
Khury Petersen-Smith
October 3, 2024
“As of this writing, Israel’s rampage in Lebanon has killed more than a thousand people in two weeks, wounded thousands more (including many maimed for life), and displaced hundreds of thousands.
The Israeli onslaught — including the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah with a 2,000 pound, U.S.-made bombthat killed others too — has mostly garnered approval from American leaders, particularly the president and vice president.
Continuing its genocidal assault of Gaza, bombing Yemen for the second time this year, and carrying out aerial bombardment in Lebanon at a speed and on a scale perhaps unseen in the 21st century, Israel has been making plans to launch a ground invasion. As the invasions and attacks escalate and expand across the region — and Washington continues to send Israel weapons — here are six key things to know about the crisis in Lebanon and how it could be resolved.
1. Israel has a long history of attacks on Lebanon.
In 1982, at the height of Lebanon’s catastrophic, 15 year civil war, Israeli forces invaded, attacking Lebanese villages and Palestinian refugee camps with tanks, airstrikes, and shells.
Israel laid siege to Beirut and collaborated with far-right Christian Lebanese militias as they carried out a notorious massacre of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and the Shatilla refugee camp, killing thousands.
It was during these years that Hezbollah formed to fight the Israeli occupation.
2. Israel occupied Lebanon for 15 years.
Israel occupied a wide strip of Southern Lebanon from 1985 until 2000.
During that time, the Israeli military propped up the South Lebanon Army (SLA) militia, which detained Lebanese and Palestinian dissidents at a notorious prison — administered under Israeli protection — where Amnesty International and other human rights organizations documented systematic torture.
Israel justified its brutal occupation by claiming it needed a “buffer zone” to protect itself — the same excuse it is using to justify its attacks in southern Lebanon today.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/10/03/six-things-to-know-as-israel-ramps-up-its-assault-on-lebanon/
The sooner Russia gives Iran nukes or Iran demonstrates them, the better.
It will put an end to the escalation ladder.
Then Israel and Iran will have to negotiate and
live with each other like India and Pakistan do now and USA and USSR did during the cold war.
M.A.D. Is a crazy idea but given the lack of thoughtful leadership and diplomacy, it is the only
thing that I see that will stop the insanity.