The message was unmistakable, 'we chose not to hit your nuclear sites this time, but we could have done worse right here,' sources told the Post.
In other words, the attack at Isfahan was designed not only to hurt Iran but also to make it eminently clear how vulnerable to attack its nuclear sites are.
Long-range missiles from aircraft were used to avoid Tehran's radar detection capabilities.
This could be done again at any time. READ MORE
Amid the limited reliable information emerging Friday about Israel’s reported retaliation, insistent official silence in Jerusalem, and the military censor’s requirement that any allegation and detailing of an Israeli retaliatory strike be attributed to overseas media reports, it appeared that the government had indeed taken that advice to heart.
After days of protracted war cabinet discussions, visits by foreign leaders urging caution, and innumerable consultations with the United States, it would appear that the reported Israeli response was far more symbolic than damaging — designed to send messages, preserve alliances, avoid any further escalation in the short term, and keep a focus on the strategic, indeed existential, imperative of ensuring that the regime in Iran does not attain a nuclear weapons capability.
The response also appears to have been designed with a greater government awareness than in recent months of the central importance of Israel’s relationship with the United States — and specifically with a Biden administration that rallied to Israel’s defense on Saturday night, that is maintaining the vital flow of military assistance for the war against Hamas and other defense needs, and that a very few hours before the reported Israeli strike single-handedly prevented UN recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The symbolism of the reported Israeli strike was unmistakable: Five days after the sole Israeli military target hit by Iran’s direct onslaught was the Nevatim Air Force Base, which sustained minor damage, Israel is said to have targeted an Iranian military base at Isfahan. According to the former IDF intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, the base in question is a kind of Iranian “equivalent to Nevatim” — an air base, used by combat aircraft and military transport planes, likely with air defense systems. READ MORE
There was no official confirmation of a strike from Israeli authorities; state-run media in Iran reported only that air defenses were activated, downplaying claims of an attack on a military site in the city some 315 kilometers (196 miles) south of Tehran and describing the incident as business-as-usual.
But unnamed Israeli and American officials told US news outlets that Israel had carried out a strike. And the New York Times said three Iranian sources confirmed that a military air base in Isfahan had been struck. The scope of the damage was not clear.
The apparently limited nature of the strike, reportedly carried out with drones rather than missiles or airstrikes, and the lack of official acknowledgment will likely give the regime in Iran the strategic deniability needed to wriggle out of its bellicose threats to attack Israel a second time, providing an early indication that both Israel and Iran may be seeking to step back from the brink of war.
The attack had been widely expected, with Israel providing indications throughout the week that it would not let an unprecedented Iranian barrage of over 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones early Sunday pass without a response, leading to fears of spiraling tit-for-tat attacks giving way to all-out war. READ MORE
"The listed individuals and entities are responsible for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and for the violation of right to property and to private and family life of Palestinians in the West Bank," the EU stated.
"The listed entities are Lehava, a radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group, and Hilltop Youth, a radical youth group consisting of members known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank. Two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, are also listed. Both were involved in deadly attacks against Palestinians in 2015 and 2023."
The EU listed two new figures for sanctions: "Today’s designations also include Neria Ben Pazi, who has been accused of repeatedly attacking Palestinians in Wadi Seeq and in Deir Jarir since 2021, and Yinon Levi, who has taken part in multiple violent acts against neighbouring villages from his residence in the Mitarim farm illegal outpost. With today’s listings, restrictive measures under the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime now apply to 108 natural and legal persons and 28 entities from a range of countries."
According to the EU, "those listed under the sanctions regime are subject to an asset freeze, and the provision of funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly, to them or for their benefit, is prohibited. Additionally, a travel ban to the EU applies to the natural persons listed."
"The European Council calls for an immediate halt to violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and for safe access to the holy sites to be ensured. The European Council strongly condemns extremist settler violence, stating that perpetrators must be held to account; and called on the Council to accelerate work on adopting relevant targeted restrictive measures. The European Council also condemns the Israeli government’s decisions to further expand illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank and urges Israel to reverse these decisions," the Council stated.
"This is not a time for panic," Wray told a briefing organized by the Secure Community Network, "but it is a time for continued vigilance."
"Even before October 7 the threat to Jewish Americans had already elevated," he added. "In the six months since then, we've seen those threats elevated," he continued, adding the FBI opened three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations between October and January than in the four months before October 7.
Wray noted there has been a marked increase in hoaxes — including fake bomb and active shooter threats — but insisted that hoaxes disrupt activities while intimidating and terrorizing individuals and communities alike.
He repeated what he has told US lawmakers over the course of the past six months — that foreign terror organizations have increased calls for attacks against the US and its allies, highlighting Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) and affiliate organizations in addition to Hamas and Hezbollah.
Noting the close proximity to Iran's attack against Israel, Wray said that "due to the sheer volatility and fluidity of the environment abroad, we are urging all of our partners here and around the world to stay vigilant when it comes to potential threats that may emerge from Iran or its proxies — both overseas and even here in the homeland."
The FBI chief’s comments come a day after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a new report which found that the Jewish community in the US has experienced an unprecedented rise in antisemitic incidents in 2023, far beyond any numerical data recorded in the last 45 years.
The ADL reported 8,873 incidents of assault, harassment, and vandalism across the US.
This is a 140% increase compared to 2022, which was considered a peak year for antisemitic events.
An examination of the antisemitic incidents by the Anti-Defamation League also indicates a dramatic jump comprising 5,204 antisemitic events after October 7, a figure that reflects global trends, while Jewish communities around the world contended with increased tension and hatred in response to the slaughter and ongoing war – in campuses, public places, and anti-Israel demonstrations.
Last week, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced legislation to combat rising antisemitism in the US.
The Countering Antisemitism Act was introduced by US Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), along with Representatives Kathy Manning (D-NC-6), Chris Smith (R-NJ-4), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-1), and Randy Weber (R-TX-14).
The bill would require the President to appoint a federal coordinator to oversee efforts to combat domestic antisemitism and create an interagency task force to ensure cooperation between government agencies on the issue.
Officially, over the years, in Iran it has been claimed that the nuclear program is not used to obtain nuclear weapons but for research and peaceful purposes, even though it has enriched uranium far beyond levels that have any non-military purposes in addition to other activity that has no civilian purpose.
Hagetalev said that "a review of our nuclear doctrine and politics as well as considerations previously communicated is entirely possible."
In addition, he said that the various nuclear facilities are under full security against the possibility of Israel attacking them.
Hagetaleb conveyed another threatening message and said that in the event that Israel responds to Iran's massive attack over the last weekend, Iran is ready to launch powerful missiles to destroy designated targets in Israel. Our hands are on the trigger."
On Saturday night, Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel, launching over 300 attack UAVs, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at the Jewish State. Nearly all of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel's air defense systems and air force, as well as through the cooperation of the US, UK, France, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
The Israeli government has vowed to retaliate for the historic attack, but has not done so yet.
Preparations have been ongoing for over a month, including repairing water and sewage pipes and amassing thousands of tents, the source said.
There are around 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs estimated to be in the Khan Yunis and Rafah areas in southern Gaza. It is believed around 1 million people would evacuate north. The evacuation process, which could take weeks, would not start until after Passover, according to ABC News.
State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel stressed to reporters that "any kind of forced relocation or displacement of the Palestinian people within Gaza cannot and should not be part of any plan or an operation."
US and Israeli officials on Thursday held a virtual discussion on, among other issues, a possible Israeli operation in the Gazan city of Rafah.
The White House said in a statement following the meeting, “The two sides agreed on the shared objective to see Hamas defeated in Rafah. US participants expressed concerns with various courses of action in Rafah, and Israeli participants agreed to take these concerns into account and to have further follow up discussions between experts.”
Earlier this week, officials told CNN that Israel was set to begin its operation against the last Hamas battalions in the Gaza Strip this week, but delayed the operation following Iran's massive attack over the weekend.
According to the report, the IDF had planned to begin dropping leaflets over Rafah on Monday to warn civilians of the impending operation, but ultimately did not do so. READ MORE
The source is an individual familiar with an Israeli briefing on the attack but not authorized to speak about it, the Post said.
The source also said that the IDF carried out an aerial attack within Iran in response to the Iranian barrage of missiles and UAVs launched towards Israel on Saturday night. The attack was intended to signal to Iran that Israel is capable of attacking within Iranian territory.
Iran's IRNA news agency quoted Iranian army chief Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi as saying that the explosion heard in Isfahan was due to air defense systems shooting down “a suspicious object” and that no damage was caused. Experts are investigating the incident.
Another senior Iranian official responded to the attack through the Reuters news agency emphasizing that at the present time there are no plans to respond immediately and it is not clear who is responsible for the attack.
Iranian news agencies claimed that the country is examining if the attack was launched from its own territory, and not outside of its borders, in light of the assessment that the attack was accomplished with drones or small UAVs.
Army officials admit that their radar facilities did not identify any unknown aircraft entering the country's airspace.
A official in President Biden's administration said to Reuters that the United States did not take part in the Israeli attack, and that Jerusalem updated Washington on the attack beforehand.
He added that it is estimated that Iran will not escalate the situation by attacking again.
Israel has not responded to the attack in an official fashion. The Foreign Ministry has instructed Israeli embassies around the world not to respond to the events in Iran.
An IDF spokesperson said Thursday night that there are no changes to the guidelines for the Israeli home front. If such changes are made, the public will be informed.
The attacks have occurred across the globe from the recent stabbing of an orthodox priest in Australia, to the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, to the burning of churches in America. Anti-Christian activists have spread the attacks by using the legal system.
Those who stand against Christian symbols mounted a legal assault against a private club in California for its display of the cross. Now the Christians are fighting back through the courts.
From Fox News:
A California club is fighting to get its cross back on what they say is their private property after an atheist group campaigned for it to be removed.“The City’s public statements and actions have been hostile and targeted the Christian cross because [of] its religious message,” the petition, filed on March 22, said. “The City Council lacked neutrality and attacked the cross and the Lions for its free exercise of religion and free speech.”
“If there was a giant LGBT flag or something like that, this city would embrace it. No problem. So it’s specifically because of the viewpoint and the religious viewpoint and perspective of the cross. That’s their agenda,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI).
The conservative legal defense organization based in California filed a petition for relief after the City of Albany removed the cross in June 2023. The cross stood for 50 years prior to its removal.
A devout Christian originally asked the Albany Lions Club to build and maintain a large lighted steel and plexiglass cross on his private land. During the Christmas and Easter seasons the lighted cross was visible for miles. The Lions Club said this sent “its message of God’s love and as a comfort to the Christian community.”
The action against the Lions Club cross has been brewing for years. Dacus said city officials have openly expressed how they wanted to take down the cross.
Fromer mayor Aaron Tiedemann, who is associated with the Green Party and now an Albany City Council member, said the city “put its money where its mouth is” by removing the cross. He said a small group of people “had such privilege for so long” and them having to get used to not having the cross is a “real benefit.”
Dacus said the city is using eminent domain to claim ownership over the private property and legitimize removing the cross.
“The takings clause doesn’t allow the government to take property because they don’t like the religious speech,” he said. “If they could get away with this, make no mistake, then they could get away with taking down a church with eminent domain, or any other kind of religious entity or organization. And, of course, we all know that the Constitution forbids that.”
Dacus said his team is prepared to take the issue all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. He encouraged people to be aware of who they elect to office who might promote a “leftist extremist ideology” that works to oppress freedom of religion.
This comes amid US and European pressure onto Israel to respond in a way that prevents further escalation following Tehran's missile and drone attack over the weekend.
Reports citing Iranian officials said Wednesday claimed that that Iran is currently preparing its air force for potential strikes, and its navy would commence escorting Iranian commercial ships in the Red Sea.
Additionally, Tehran has initiated the evacuation of personnel from sites in Syria with a significant presence of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Syrian and Iranian officials and advisers. READ MORE
“A review of our nuclear doctrine and politics as well as considerations previously communicated is entirely possible,” says Ahmad Haghtalab, the IRGC commander in charge of nuclear security.
Tehran has long claimed its nuclear program was for civilian purposes. Israel has accused Iran of wanting to acquire an atomic bomb, and has said that it will not allow it to happen.
Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel overnight from Saturday into Sunday morning in its first direct attack on Israeli territory.
The barrage came in retaliation for an alleged Israeli airstrike on what Tehran said was an Iranian consular building in Damascus, that killed seven IRGC soldiers, including two generals.
Israel and its allies shot down the vast majority of the drones and missiles and the attack caused only one injury, but concerns about a potential Israeli reprisal have nevertheless stoked fears of all-out regional war.
"This is not a time for panic," Wray told a briefing organized by the Secure Community Network, "but it is a time for continued vigilance."
"Even before October 7 the threat to Jewish Americans had already elevated," he added. "In the six months since then, we've seen those threats elevated," he continued, adding the FBI opened three times more anti-Jewish hate crime investigations between October and January than in the four months before October 7.
Wray noted there has been a marked increase in hoaxes — including fake bomb and active shooter threats — but insisted that hoaxes disrupt activities while intimidating and terrorizing individuals and communities alike.
He repeated what he has told US lawmakers over the course of the past six months — that foreign terror organizations have increased calls for attacks against the US and its allies, highlighting Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) and affiliate organizations in addition to Hamas and Hezbollah. READ MORE
The source said that his country's military is on high alert along the Gaza-Egypt border, in preparation for a potential ground incursion by the IDF into Rafah.
According to the source, Egypt raised its alert level following a lengthy conversation with Israel and the understanding that the IDF is carrying out intensive preparations for a widescale operation in the area.
On Wednesday, ABC News quoted three Israeli sources as saying that Israel prepared for and then aborted retaliatory strikes against Iran on at least two nights this past week.
According to the report, a range of responses to the drone and missile attack have been presented to the Israeli War Cabinet. The potential responses include options ranging from attacking Iranian proxies in the region but not on Iranian soil to a potential cyber attack, the sources said.
In addition, a senior US official told ABC News that Israel is unlikely to carry out a strike on Iran until after Passover, which begins at sundown on Monday, although that could always change.
"While Israeli citizens are preparing bomb shelters and buying generators, and at least 100,000 civilians are evacuated from their homes in the north and south of the country, and most importantly 133 hostages are still in Gaza, residents of Deir al-Balah demonstrate what 'a step from absolute victory' looks like," one social media user commented.
Journalist Barak Ravid wrote: "It must be said that there is no longer a war in Gaza. Maybe there is partial and limited fighting. Maybe Israeli TV channels will also report on this eventually."
"Netanyahu, don't say you didn't know," one user tweeted. "In our country, there are places that can't be reached. And until residents return, they suffer attacks as residents returning to their bombed homes. And in Gaza they relax on the beach... Beautiful. A step from victory."
The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, responded to the footage: "In Gaza - pictures of thousands bathing at the beach. In the north - Hezbollah saw that the Misconception Cabinet did not respond to an attack of hundreds of missiles from Iran to Israel, so they raised their heads and increased their aggression against us, which cost us in wounded soldiers today."
Ben-Gvir added: "The time has come to dismantle that Cabinet, to stop the policy of containment and proportionality, and to show our enemies that we have had enough. As long as the current policy of that Cabinet continues, unfortunately, the absolute victory is getting further away."
A user named Liron Samuels commented: "If this is what the beach at Deir Al-Balah looks like, there probably is no war." Another user wrote: "Now it's clear why they provoked Iran. To divert public attention from the lack of fighting in Gaza to continue fighting against Iran."
The Torat Lehima organization commented: "The terrible lynching video of our abducted brother Jordan Bibas by 'residents of Gaza' on the same day that a video comes out of 'residents of Gaza' bathing in the sea while he is in captivity, demonstrates the atrocity of the Misconception Cabinet towards our abducted brothers and sisters, supplying trucks of aid to these savages. These 'residents of Gaza' are murderous terrorists. There is not one of them that is innocent. Aid to Gaza is aid to the enemy." WATCH
He opened his address to his men: "Let's look at the past half year and think what have we learned? What did we learn from October 7th? What did we learn about ourselves? What did we learn about the battalion? What did you learn about yourselves and about your peers?"
The commander summed up the operations of the past half year and said: "We learned most of all to love each other, to fight beside each other, to be tolerant to each other, to work together, and to do it with the power that you have now."
Lt. Col. Dotan concluded: "Let's conclude that the people of Israel trust you to do your best. As you did in Nusirat, Zeitoun, Daraj Tufah, and Shifa, you'll do it in Rafah as well and we're going to Rafah and we'll give it to them, got it?"
On Wednesday, the 162nd Division completed a targeted raid on the outskirts of the Nusirat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The troops completed the activity after a week. During the operation, they expanded the security area of the Netzarim corridor which splits the Gaza Strip in two and prevented the return of Gazans to the northern Gaza Strip.
Around one-fourth of the hostages in Gaza are no longer alive.
According to US officials, though it is "difficult to say for certain," far fewer hostages may be alive than is publicly known.
A former senior Israeli official told NBC that there is no firm estimate regarding how many hostages are still alive, adding, "No one reliable has this information. It’s all speculation."
A relative of one of the hostages, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Israeli security officials have shown Americans that they know where many of the hostages are, but that the hostages are kept on the move.
Though the Biden administration assumes that five US hostages are still alive and unaccounted for, the US government has better visibility into the locations and conditions of some hostages than others, and cannot say with certainty that all five are still alive, a US official said.
The US also believes that Hamas is holding the bodies of several other Americans believed to have been taken hostage on October 7.
Will Israel send its air force out to flatten as many military and civilian targets as it can, as some members of Israel’s War Cabinet favor, or will the response be carefully thought out to achieve the maximum results in the short and longer terms?
In other words, to clean up a well-known saying, will Israel follow its brains or its muscles?
The brains method means a reliance on cyberattacks, which could shut down Iran for weeks or months.
The muscles approach would bring some satisfaction and some chest-thumping, but it would miss other possible positive outcomes:
Israel is a recognized world power when it comes to cybersecurity. But unlike the national tendency to claim noisy credit for its accomplishments, its cyber achievements are kept under tight censorship wraps. That has become a strategic error, depriving Israel of obvious, public deterrent capabilities.
For now, though, those of us writing from Israel have to attribute what we know to “foreign reports.” So please consider what you’re reading here as such. I’ve been playing that “game” for decades. READ MORE
During the meeting with Cameron and Baerbock, Netanyahu insisted on Israel's right to self defense. Netanyahu thanked the two foreign ministers for their unequivocal support for Israel.
The prime minister also presented the foreign ministers with updates about humanitarian aid efforts to Gaza and the continuation of the war in Gaza. Netanyahu rejected claims that there is a famine in Gaza and insisted that Israel is going "above and beyond" on humanitarian issues.
In a cabinet meeting after the meeting between the ministers, Netanyahu thanked Israel's friends for "their support for the defense of Israel."
The prime minister also took a dig at Israel's allies "they also have all kinds of suggestions and advice, I appreciate it, but I want to make it clear - we will make our own decisions, and the State of Israel will do everything necessary to defend itself." READ MORE
Among other things, we discussed a proposal he had for dealing with the densely population Gaza Strip — a plan for an expanded Gaza, created in part by Egypt allocating a very small proportion of the vast Sinai Peninsula. Eiland sketched me a map of the envisaged territorial adjustments, with lines showing tunnels and pipelines and trade routes emerging from the Gulf and crossing Israel and Gaza to the sea — a blueprint for regional cooperation.
Rather atypically, I framed it, and hung it on a wall at home. It’s still there now. But the lines have faded to near-invisibility. Quite the metaphor for the descent into our current horrific reality — as triggered by Hamas’s October 7 invasion, a stalled war in Gaza, Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone onslaught, and the acute dilemma now facing an Israeli government, hamstrung by internal mistrust, regarding whether, when and how to hit back at the Islamic Republic.
Should Israel hold its fire, and risk a deepened perception of weakness? Should Israel strike back directly at Iran, and risk an escalation into regional or even world war? What are the options in between? How should the United States’ pleas for wisdom and strategic thinking translate into action?
Over the past six months, Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Eiland has been one of the prominent ex-generals dispensing advice from Israel’s television studios. If that fading map exemplified an optimistic potential path ahead all those years ago, the early post-October 7 days saw Eiland bleakly castigating the government and defense establishment for what he believed was a fundamentally misguided war strategy. Israel’s leaders, he declared, had failed to recognize Hamas’s Gaza as a full-on terror state, with its citizens largely complicit, and thus the reliance on military pressure alone to destroy Hamas and get back the hostages was destined for failure.
In a telephone interview on Monday night, Eiland set out his recommended — and extremely dramatic — approach for Gaza, and for dealing with the weekend’s Iran assault, and much more besides. He spoke in his characteristic rapid-fire Hebrew. This translated transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity. READ MORE
Allies including the United States have urged Israel not to risk igniting a wider regional conflict, and President Joe Biden has made clear US forces would not join any retaliatory attack on Iran.
Despite the warnings, Israel’s war cabinet is leaning toward a forceful response, an Israeli source told The Times of Israel.
For now, Israel’s thinking is that there is no harm in keeping Iran guessing by delaying a potential response. “Let them be anxious,” the source said.
They noted that Israel could respond “within Iran or outside Iran.” READ MORE
The data were published by the Anti-Defamation League, which reported 8,873 incidents of assault, harassment, and vandalism across the US.
This is a 140% increase compared to 2022, which was considered a peak year for antisemitic events.
An examination of the antisemitic incidents by the Anti-Defamation League also indicates a dramatic jump comprising 5,204 antisemitic events after October 7, a figure that reflects global trends, while Jewish communities around the world contended with increased tension and hatred in response to the slaughter and ongoing war – in campuses, public places, and anti-Israel demonstrations.
Along with these incidents, the total number of antisemitic incidents during the 12 months of 2023 exceeded the total of the last three years combined and averaged about 24 antisemitic incidents a day in the US.
In response to the new findings, the Anti-Defamation League is calling on governors across the US to formulate state-level plans similar to the White House's national strategy to combat antisemitism, the first comprehensive initiative of its kind to tackle antisemitism from all political spectrums in the US.
"Antisemitism is nothing less than a national emergency, the highest level of concern, and it is still rampant across the US, in our communities and campuses," said Jonathan Greenblatt, the global CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. "Because of who they are, American Jews are targeted at school, at work, on the street, at Jewish institutions, and even in their homes. This crisis demands immediate action from every sector of society and every state in the United States. We need every governor to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to combat antisemitism, just as the government did at the national level".
According to the Center for the Study of Extremism of the Anti-Defamation League, which leads the investigation and data collection for the organization, incidents increased in all three categories: harassment incidents jumped by 184% compared to 2022; acts of vandalism increased by 69%; and physical assaults jumped by 45%.
In an interview with Galei Israel radio, the host asked Edelist, "Let's say we hold elections today, the Right wins and forms a government. Will you accept the decision of the public, or will you go out again to burn the streets?"
Edelist responded, "No, we certainly won't accept [that]. We will certainly continue with the same protest, as we are doing now. There's no argument about that now."
Reader Meir Ohana responded to the interview, posting, "At least he is telling the truth!! They simply want to bring down the Jewish state and create a fundamentalist democracy alongside a Palestinian state."
Another reader responded, "The enlightened Left-wing camp never did and never will accept the results of the elections in which the Right won, or will win, [and form] the government."