Israeli military officials previously addressed the expected Israeli response to Iran and Tehran’s expected behavior, while others called for the need to significantly weaken the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Hezbollah.
Eshel Armoni, former head of the Intelligence and Special Tasks Division at the Mossad, said that Iran is Israel’s main rival, anticipating that Tel Aviv will go into “years of war in the face of what he described as (jihad).”
Former Israeli army air defenses commander Zvika Haimovich said it was likely that the Iranian response to Israel’s expected attack would be “different in style and timing.”
Haimovich said that Iran’s attack on Israel on October 1 was fundamentally different from the attack on April 14.
At the beginning of this month, Iran launched about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, and said that this was in response to Israel’s assassination of the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, as well as the assassination of the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, in Beirut.
Haimovich believes that the Iranian response to the Israeli attack will be “very soon,” saying that “the Iranians in the air force and air defenses are prepared for such a scenario.”
In this context, the American New York Times newspaper, yesterday, Thursday, quoted 4 Iranian officials as saying that Tehran’s response and the level of its strength depends on what Israel will do, as it may launch up to a thousand ballistic missiles at Israel if it targets its oil and nuclear facilities.
On the other hand, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted a security official as saying that the military plans to attack Iran had received the approval of Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, while Israeli Channel 12 reported that Tel Aviv appears to have reached the peak of its preparations for an attack on Iran.
Developments in Gaza and Lebanon
Yisrael Ziv, former head of the Operations Division in the Israeli army, reduced the army’s operations in the northern Gaza Strip “unless they lead to the return of the kidnapped (prisoners).”
“Without this, the account will not be closed for the October 7, 2023 attack,” Ziv said.
The former Israeli military official seemed unconvinced by the army’s policy in the northern Gaza Strip, which is based on military pressure on the local population “in order to put pressure on Hamas to force it to conclude an exchange deal.”
Since October 6, the Israeli army began a new military operation in the northern Gaza Strip governorate, and imposed its siege on the Jabalia area.
The occupation army prevented people from fleeing to neighboring Gaza City, and ordered them to flee only via Salah al-Din Street, which extends along the eastern Gaza Strip from north to south.
On a related issue, Dvir Kreib, a former senior Shin Bet official, called for Hamas and Hezbollah to be weakened significantly and quickly. He said, “Southern Lebanon must become like Gaza, and we destroy entire villages there.”
Kreib added that Israel “does not know how to fight long wars,” pointing out that the Israeli army is based on reserve forces, “and we will not be able to withstand this situation for a long time.”
Regarding the duration of the Israeli ground operation in southern Lebanon, Roi Sharon, a military affairs analyst for Kan 11, said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the mini-ministerial council (cabinet) always find more pretexts, and he compared this to what Defense Minister Ariel Sharon did when he invaded Lebanon in 1982. .
The military analyst believes that it is necessary to reach an agreement on the northern front, adding, “If the political level does not work, the achievements will be in vain.”
