In the late hours of Tuesday, citizens of Tel Aviv woke up to the sound of sirens, just to see a barrage of missiles raining down on them. The missiles were launched directly from Iran’s soil, a retaliation to the earlier assassination of Hasan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah.
Named “Honest Promise 2”, a multi wave operation conducted by IRGC aerial command under the supervision of Iran’s armed forces and Iran’s ministry of defense, aimed to destroy military targets deep in Israeli territory, mainly bases used by IDF and Mossad to carpet bomb areas in southern Beirut and Lebanon. This is the second time this year that Iran launches such attacks from its own soil to target IDF bases in Israel. Tensions between Iran and Israel have been rising since the strike of Iran consulate in Damascus, an attack condemned by many and a direct violation of international laws.
On April 1, Israel struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing sixteen, including a Syrian woman and her child. Iran claimed that the Israeli air strike is a violation of international laws, since targeting diplomatic buildings under the Geneva convention on diplomatic relations is prohibited. This action sparked world wide reaction and numerous countries condemned the attack and expressed their concerns, with Japan even demanding further investigation. Iran vowed to take revenge and did so, days later, Iran launched its biggest attack against Israel, launching more than hundreds of missiles toward Israel, many being shot down in a joint operation by The United States, The United Kingdom, Israel and Kingdom of Jordan air forces. This was the first stepping stone of a more insatiable region. Months later, just hours after Iran’s president inauguration, Ismail Haniye, political leader of Hamas and a formal guest of the Iranian government was assassinated in a complex in northern Tehran. Despite Israel denying any ties with this event, Iran condemned Israel and once again vowed to take revenge. Many countries including The United States asked Iran to restraint and not to take any further action that could deteriorate the violent situation in the Middle East. Just as everybody was thinking that Iran would not retaliate this time, came the pagers explosions and days later, carpet bombing of southern Beirut which killed Hasan Nasrallah, the closest resistant leader to Iran. Days later, people from different parts of Iran watched the sky as it turned bright from the engines of IRGC missiles, their target, military bases in Israel, particularly an air base south of Lebanese border, responsible for the strikes in Beirut.
Iran state media claimed at the night of the attacks that more than 90 percent of the missiles have hit their targets, Abadan radio station also claimed that the mission was a success and that Iran has reached its objective. Iran foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi told the press the day after the attacks “the mission is now complete”. Commander of the armed forces of Iran said in an interview that was published in IRIB later that night that “our target were not Israel population but IDF assets, and we were totally capable of destroying Israel economic infrastructure but since civilians are non-combatants we chose not to”, he added “we hope that the United States is going to control the state of Israel”. Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president said on a post on X that “Our attack was in the framework of international laws and was to protect Iran’s citizens and interests.” He then directly addressed Israel’s prime minister and said “Iran is not warmongering but if Israel wants to retaliate, our strike is going to be severe”. Iran’s parliament was also a scene of chanting and cheers after the attack while the head of the parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in his daily speech that “the United States should tame its rabid dog [Israel]”. Thousands also gathered in city squares to celebrate the successful attacks in cities like Theran and Tabriz.
On the other side, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has said that Israel’s response should be “tough”.IDF soldiers on state-owned social media pages also threatened that Iran will answer for its actions. The Pentagon spokesperson, John Kirby said during a press conference that the attack was the biggest ever conducted by Iran and that The United States is still investigating the extent of it, he then added that The US is ready to consult Israel in case of retaliation.
Many news agencies around the world had dual reactions to this event, with some claiming the attack was not successful at all and on the other hand some saying that Iran has concluded its attacks and destroyed its intended targets.
Whether Israel is going to retaliate or that the regions going through an all-out war is unknown, what is certain though is that the real cost of this skirmishes is paid by innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the political state of Middle East and will result in indiscriminate killings and destruction and displacement of many, furthermore it will deteriorate the inhumane situation in Gaza and will spread the shadow of war to other regions such as Lebanon, disrupting the daily lives of people and adding to the non-ending misery in this region.
Written by Mohammad Amin
