A day after a Hezbollah drone penetrated Israel’s air defenses and exploded next to the private home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he held a series of meetings with top security aides to discuss the next attack on Iran.
The planning for such an assault has been underway for three weeks since Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel following Israeli assassinations of leaders of Iran-sponsored militias.
But Saturday’s precise drone attack on Netanyahu’s coastal home north of Tel Aviv stunned many Israelis. While neither Netanyahu nor his wife were home and no one was injured, he and his ministers said it was another reason retaliation is warranted.
“There is no doubt that another red line has been crossed here,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s Channel 14 on Saturday night. “We must defeat Iran’s ability to pose a threat.”
While Iran awaits Israel’s attack — and has vowed to hit back even harder — it made a point of denying involvement in the Saturday drone assault on Netanyahu’s home in the town of Caesarea.
The retaliation has taken longer than many expected, perhaps because of coordination between the US and Israel. Washington is urging Israel to avoid hitting either energy or nuclear installations and has sent Israel sophisticated anti-ballistic missile defense weapons for if and when Iran hits back.
An apparently leaked Pentagon document over the weekend detailed some of Israel’s preparations for such an attack. The leak, the authenticity of which wasn’t verified, appeared on the Telegram account of a pro-Iranian group called Middle East Spectator.
On Sunday, Netanyahu’s office said that while it takes into account what the US advises, Israel makes its own decisions. It’s unclear when a decision will be reached or when retaliation will occur. Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Channel 14, “There is no facility, whether military or civilian, nor any person in Iran that is immune. None of them sleeps well at night.”
Donald Trump, the former US president running in next month’s election, told a campaign rally that Netanyahu had called him and said that after Israel’s recent assassinations of militia leaders, including on Thursday of Hamas’ Yahya Sinwar, it was in a much better position to fight back against Iran and its proxies.
Netanyahu’s Sunday planning for the attack on Iran, first with close advisers and then with his security cabinet, came at…
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