Tel Aviv: Israel has enhanced its presence in areas vital to address any major hostilities that Iran may initiate in the very near future. This follows relatively mild retaliation to attacks on Israel mainly by rockets performed by Tehran’s proxies in Syrah and Lebanon.
Israel has also enhanced its presence in the Gulf and Red Sea where in the past Iranian proxies attacked Israeli cargo ships. The tension in the Middle-East brought Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 10 to reinstate Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant two weeks after his decision to fire him.
All Israeli sensors on the ground air and space are operated to their limits to detect any signs of what is referred in Jerusalem as a multi-front attack on Israel, to be performed by all Iranian proxies in the Middle-East and Gulf.
Israeli sources told Raksha Anirveda that the enhanced level of relations between Israel and Azerbaijan helped the Israeli intelligence to follow Iranian developing threats. In March, Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Israel. On this occasion, the Azeri foreign minister met with his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen.
The Israeli minster said that Azerbaijan’s location make our relations of strategic importance and great potential.
Azerbaijan shares a long border with Iran. In recent years Azerbaijan purchased large numbers of Israeli made advanced weapon systems. The locations of Azerbaijan and its close relations with Israel are helping Jerusalem to get a more closer look at Iranian actions. This while all signs are that Tehran takes steps to initiate a multi-arena attack on Israel, not directly by its military forces but by a coordinated actions of its proxies in Lebanon, Syria Gaza and the West Bank.
In the background of all the very high tension in the Middle-East is the dwindling presence of the US in the Middle- East and the situation in Israel as a result of the Judiciary revolution initiated by the full right government. Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Washington’s Middle-East withdrawal makes a confrontation between Israel and Iran a looming danger.
Last week rockets were launched from the Gaza strip and Lebanon. Two days later rockets were launched from Syria. Israeli intelligence asserted that the attacks were performed in both cases by Hamas cells and not by
the main Iranian proxy the Hezbollah .Therefore the targets attacked by Israel were those were this cells operate.
In parallel, Israeli intelligence received signs that Tehran is planning a major operation against Israeli targets in the Gulf and this information was shared with the US which according to Israeli sources brought Washington to deploy a nuclear submarine in the Middle-East.
Israeli sources said that Iran wants to revenge the death of two senior advisors in Syria in March. According to Iran International website, the attacks on March 30 caused the death of two IRGC officers.
Vowing revenge, the Islamic Republic has admitted that two IRGC “military advisors were killed in the late March attacks. According to the website operated from London by the opposition to the Iranian leadership, the
attacks seemed to be Israel’s response to a foiled terrorist attack a week ago in the Megiddo area inside Israel by a person who, according to Israel was sent by Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In recent months, Iran took advantage of the diminishing presence of Russia in Syria and increased its presence in this country. The Iranian proxies attacked US targets in Syria. According to the Jasoor for studies website, a joint American –Israeli operation against the Iranian forces in Syria is looming.
It seems that the US-led International Coalition along with its local partners and with an Arab and Israeli consensus has begun a new phase, aiming at undermining the activities of Iranian militias in Syria by targeting drug transport factories, facilities and routes in Syria, which would also include many stores, warehouses and vehicles for transporting weapons and ammunition, especially since many sites are used jointly for drugs and weapons.
The fast developing situation with its many twists , also explains according to Israeli defence sources the fact that in recent Israeli attacks the air and ground launched weapons used by Israel hit targets that are fully used by the Assad regime and not by Iranian proxies.
This is a new more aggressive action to warn Assad not to help Iran if it initiates a multi-front aggression against Israel, one of these sources said.
Dr Moredcahi Kedar, a senior Israeli expert on Middle East issues some days ago released a very serious warning about an emerging Iranian attack on Israel, performed by all its proxies in the Middle East and Gulf areas.
He explained that his assessment is based on an expatriate from the Middle East, a supporter of Israel, who lives in Europe and is in continuous contact with people in Iran and Iraq who conveyed that Iran plans to launch a combined attack on Israel in the foreseeable future that will include all the forces at its disposal in the Arab countries. ”This assessment is based on hard facts and I hope Israel takes it seriously,” Kedar said.
In a paper he prepared, he describes the proxies that may according to his assessment participate in the multi-front war. In Lebanon – Hezbollah and Hamas with many thousands of missiles and UAVs, some of them precision missiles. In Syria – 17 combat units (militias) armed and ready: Fatimiun, Zinbioun, Nujabaa, Hezbollah, Abu Al-Fadhl Brigade, Asaab al-Haq, Khorasani Brigade and more. Iran has transferred a very large number of missiles and
UAVs to Syria and these are ready to be launched. In Iraq – dozens of militias, armed with missiles and UAVs.
In Yemen – the Houthis, who have Iranian long-range missiles and UAVs that reach Israel. In Gaza – Hamas and the GAP with missiles capable of disabling the Israel Defence Forces and Air Force bases.
“It is likely that Iran will not launch anything from its territory to Israel in order not to expose itself to retaliation.
So much for the assessment that came to me from Iraq, hence my interpretation is that under the pretext of the duty of the Muslim world to save the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Israeli occupation and oppression, Iran will conduct a staged, comprehensive, integrated and coordinated attack on Israel. The first phase will be a shower of missiles and UAVs from all the aforementioned arenas together and the Iranian estimate is that the stock of interceptors of the Iron Dome will run out within two to three hours from the start of the air attack, after which the Israeli skies will be open and the air force will be damaged and grounded,” said Kedar.
Kedar asserts that the first phase, the aerial one, will be accompanied by a cyber-attack on Israeli infrastructure systems. After a full day of a cyber-attack and a rain of missiles and UAVs that will hit air force bases, navy bases, army bases, electricity, computing, communication, road and water infrastructures, the second phase will begin.
This will be a coordinated ground attack from Lebanon, Syria and Gaza by infantry, mounted forces on dirt bikes and ATVs which can traverse uneven terrain equipped with anti-tank weapons and attack the Israeli ground forces in order to reach Jewish settlements as quickly as possible.
Kedar writes in his assessment that Russia and China, Iran’s allies will call on both sides to cease violence and will support Iran almost openly and provide it with information about what is happening in Israel. The American and European governments will not intervene militarily but will content themselves with words because no one in the West is looking for another war-zone in addition to the Ukrainian one, which is emptying NATO’s ammunition depots.
Not all the experts in Israel accept Kedar’s assessment. Dan Halutz, an Israeli Air Force retired lieutenant general and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces, told Raksha Anirveda that he does not see an interest of the involved parties to initiate a multi-front war with Israel. The situation in our area is complex but such a scenario is not likely at this point of time.
Professor Uzi Rabi, an expert on Middle-East issues told Raksha Anirveda that Iran will not initiate a multi-front war with Israel using its proxies. Iran believes that Israel will attack its nuclear sites when they will be a very short distance from the bomb. All its actions we see now is to get ready for such an attack.
Rabi added that as part of these preparations Iran is taking over Syria by using a series of actions. In Israel, the Israeli defence forces (IDF) are on high alert to deal with terror actions coming mainly from the Palestinians authority towns and villages. But other units including the air force and navy are also on top alert.
