The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said the attack was in retaliation for the killing of Hamas foreign chief Ismail Haniya, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian general, state television said. Thousands of people celebrated the rocket attack on Israel in Iran.
Grant Rumley, a former Pentagon official, told the New York Times that unlike the April attack, in which Israel had days of warning and was able to coordinate its defense with allies in the region, Tuesday’s attack took just a few hours announced in advance. “So it’s hard to view this new attack as purely symbolic,” Rumley said. “It definitely looks like an escalation by Iran.”
According to experts, the reins of action now lie with Israel. Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director of the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, a research institute in Beirut, told the Wall Street Journal that Iran’s attack gives Israel reason to strike back directly into Iranian territory, which could trigger a regional war.
Bilal Saab, a former Pentagon official and now at the think tank Trends Research and Advisory, assesses the situation similarly. He said: “The possibility of further escalation of this regional conflict has more to do with what Israel wants and less to do with what Iran does.” He added: “Israel sees here a unique opportunity to harm and potentially deal a fatal blow to all its opponents.”
US President Joe Biden is calling for careful consideration of the response to the Iranian missile attack. Asked how Israel should respond to Iran, Biden responded at the White House in Washington: “That’s an ongoing discussion right now. We have to look closely at all the data. We’re in constant contact with the Israeli government and our partners, and That remains to be seen.” As things currently stand, the attack appears to have been repelled and ineffective. The USA is fully behind Israel. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called the Iranian missile attack a “despicable act of aggression.” “We call on Iran to stop all further attacks, including from its proxy terrorist groups,” he said.
