The usefulness of the Iron Dome
According to Israel, most of the missiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. The Pentagon indicated that American ships had also fired around ten interceptor missiles in support of Israel.
The attack left two people lightly injured in Israel, according to emergency services, and a Palestinian was killed by missile fragments in Jericho, in the occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian official.
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Sirens sounded across the country and Israeli airspace was closed.
AFP journalists saw explosions in the sky and heard dozens of detonations. Hundreds of people at West Jerusalem’s central bus station took refuge in an underground parking lot. Some prayed, others checked their phones. About an hour after the attack, the army called on the population to come out of shelters.
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Mossad targeted
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s ideological army, claimed to have “aimed at the heart” of Israel, to avenge the deaths of pro-Iranian Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Palestinian Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh and one of their commanders. , Abbas Nilforoushan, killed at the same time as Nasrallah on Friday in Lebanon.
The Iranian chief of staff affirmed that the missiles had targeted “the three main military air bases of the Zionist regime, the Mossad (the Israeli secret services, Editor’s note), center of terror, the Nevatim air base for planes F-35 and Hatzerim Air Base, which was used to assassinate martyr Nasrallah.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran respected the necessary standards and only targeted military bases,” General Bagheri stressed in a statement on Iranian national television.
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“If the Zionist regime, which has gone mad, is not controlled by its American and European supporters and wants to continue these crimes or act against our sovereignty and territorial integrity, the operation like that of this evening will be repeated with greater force. high intensity and all the regime’s infrastructure will be targeted,” warned General Bagheri.
Iran exercised its “right to self-defense,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. “We did this after showing immense restraint for almost two months, in order to make room for a ceasefire in Gaza,” he continued.
“Action completed”
“Our action is over unless the Israeli regime decides to invite further reprisals,” he warned.
On April 13, in response to a deadly strike attributed to Israel on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Iran fired some 350 explosive drones and missiles towards Israel, the first direct attack of its kind, dubbed “Honest Promise”. Most of the missiles were intercepted by Israel with the help of foreign countries, especially the United States.
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“The United States fully, fully, fully supports Israel,” US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday, adding that discussions were “ongoing” with Israel on how to respond.
The Iranian attack was denounced by the European Union, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and even Spain. The UN Security Council is due to meet urgently on Wednesday to discuss the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.
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Israel has been at war with Hamas in Gaza since an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against its territory on October 7, 2023. Israel is also fighting Lebanese Hezbollah which opened a front against Israel in support of Hamas, its ally, the day after the start of the war.
Powerful Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a devastating Israeli raid on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Friday.
On July 31, Ismaïl Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, was killed in an attack while he was in Tehran. Iran and Hamas blamed Israel.
Just before Tuesday’s Iranian attack, six civilians were killed in an automatic weapons and stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, carried out by two shooters who were “neutralized”, according to police.