Iran’s first direct successful attack on Israel for its many brutal attacks on Syria, Lebanon, Iran and the annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank has dramatically changed the rules for all state and non-state actors in the Middle East. On 13 April, for the first time in nearly 190 days, Palestinians in Gaza were able to sleep without fear of Israel’s constant aerial presence in the skies over the Strip, which has been mercilessly carpet-bombed since 7 October.

The results of Iran’s successful attack on Israel

The reason: for the first time in history, Iran launched drones and missiles directly at Israel from its territory in retaliation for Israel’s brutal, unprecedented air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on 1 April, which killed 16 people. Although Iran’s attack on Israel ended within hours, it gave a brief respite to the Palestinians in Gaza, who have faced a relentless Israeli onslaught that has so far killed some 34,000 people and injured some 100,000, most of them civilians – the elderly, children and women.

After Israel attacked with more than 300 drones and missiles, the Iranian mission in New York immediately informed the UN that Tehran had halted its retaliation. Tel Aviv said it had intercepted 99 per cent of the drones and missiles fired by Iran with the help of an international coalition including Jordan. But as it later turned out, the famous ‘Iron Dome’ was quietly breached, and had it not been for the US and Britain shooting down 99 per cent of the drones (the missiles safely reaching their targets), there would have been nothing left of the Nevatim and Ramon military bases. Suffice it to say that the Jordanian air defences alone, which were not threatened, shot down more than half of the Iranian drones and not a single missile.

In its 18 April edition, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Israel’s air defences only managed to repel 84% of the Iranian attack. The newspaper also questioned claims by an Israeli army spokesman that 99% of Iranian missiles and drones were intercepted by Israeli anti-missile systems. According to published reports, visual evidence from satellite imagery left no doubt that the Iranian attack targeted one of the buildings at the Dimona nuclear facility, where rooms thought to be impenetrable were hit twice. The Israeli bases at Nevatim and Ramon, in the heart of the Negev desert, were hit by Iranian missiles four and five times respectively, according to a released video. A huge swarm of hundreds of Iranian drones........

© New Eastern Outlook