Israeli Pre-Emptive Defence

"It is an unusual event that has caused a lot of anxiety and will burn in the memory of this city." "Crying, vomiting, uncontrollable tremors, abdominal pain and headaches, and difficulty falling asleep."
"It’s impossible to get used to such a difficult reality."
Hila Gonen-Peretz, head, local trauma center, Sderot, Israel

"My mother was lying and covering my little sister, who is just a year old. Her whole life is ahead of her and she was traumatized for life. My sister did not choose to be born into this reality. A reality of fear, a reality of sadness and pain."
"Islamic Jihad and Hamas control us. They tell us when to go to school, when to go to work, when to cancel a big performance, and when to run in fear and cry."
Uri, a 12-year-old attendee at the Live Sderot music festival

"They [the bomb shelters] were all filled to the brim with a long line outside."
"I was able to find a place for my children in one of them, and I started looking for other children who were left outside and let them in."
"It was a shocking experience. This was an attempt at a mass attack, I have no doubt. [Gaza terrorist groups] haven’t received a proper response at all, and there’s nothing stopping them from doing it again."
"Until yesterday, the terrorist organizations did not dare to shoot at a mass event. I have lived in the border area for 16 years, and I do not remember such a thing. Today they feel they can — and they’ve proven it, too."
Amit Casper, Sderot resident

Streaks of light are pictured as rockets are launched from the northern Gaza Strip toward Israel, as seen from Sderot, Aug. 8, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen

"The IDF, by Israeli aircraft, was able to thwart an Iranian attempt led by the Quds force from Syria to conduct an attack on Israeli targets in northern Israel using killer drones."
"[The Israeli attack targeted] a number of terror targets and military facilities belonging to the Quds force as well as Shiite militias."
"This was a significant plan with significant capabilities that had been planned for a few months. It was not something done on a low level, but rather top down from the Quds Force."
"[The Iranian attack was believed to be] very imminent.The threat was significant and these killer drones were capable of striking targets with significant capacity."
IDF military spokesman Jonathan Conricus

"[The Israeli strike represents a] major operational effort."
"Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our forces are operating in every arena against Iranian aggressiveness."
"If someone rises up to kill you, kill him first. I have directed that our forces be prepared for any scenario."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shows a part of an Iranian drone as he speaks at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on February 18, 2018. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

Yes, the Israeli air force may have focused on and struck military installations which intelligence had highlighted as preparing an imminent deadly strike with the use of armed drones, and performed successfully, but this is an antagonist that plays by its own rules bypassing all international war conventions practised by civilized nations, despite that war is hardly a civilized interaction between countries.

Iran and its proxy militias, and its Syrian ally play by their own rules, and there is nothing civilized about them. As payback for the destroyed drones and the failed mission meant to wreak deadly havoc within Israel planned so carefully by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds force, it is a civilian population across the border from Gaza that has been targeted yet again, sending a panicked population which has been ceaselessly targeted by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, into bomb shelters.

Iran is determined to destroy Israel's presence in the Middle East. It plans for a pincer movement using its allied militias, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran-associated Shiite militias in Syria, along with Hamas in Gaza to attack on a number of fronts, gambling that Israel's defence will be fragmented and distracted and unable to shelter its citizens from the scourge of total war. In the past, Israel has withheld the full force of its military's destructive capability, to spare civilian lives.

Should such an all-out-from-all-directions attack occur there would be an incentive for Israel to sacrifice the civilian lives of other countries' nationals alongside those of the militias threatening the existence of Israeli citizens. Israel bombed Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Syria and struck in Lebanon as well, sending an indelible message of its intention to thwart any and all attacks on Israel's existence. Since the last Lebanon war with Hezbollah Iran has supplied its proxy militia with updated, technically advanced war machinery.

In Gaza, the same thing has occurred; an agreed-upon 'hudna' as a temporary truce to enable Islamist forces to recoup their losses, introduce new forces, stockpile greater numbers of bombs and rockets, undergo more intensive training, to enable yet another attempt at destroying the hated Jewish State. Hezbollah has gained more experience in delivering death upon helpless civilians and conducting siege warfare aiding the butcher Bashar al Assad in Syria slaughter Sunni Syrians.

Now Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's secretary general warns of a "new phase of war" to respond to the "targeted attack" in southern Beirut, vowing "the time when Israel would strike anywhere in Lebanon and stay secure has ended". The reverse message of Israel's prime minister. Israel targets militias, threats against its existence. Its adversaries target Israeli civilians equally with members of the military; they are all Jews, after all.

Lebanon's prime minister in calling the bombing a "clear violation" of Lebanese sovereignty overlooks the fact that the violation has already taken place with Iran manoeuvring Lebanon for attacks and Hezbollah overtaking its rule of law.

An Iran-made drone is launched during a military drill in Jask port, southern Iran, in this picture released by Jamejam Online December 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Jamejam Online, Chavosh Homavandi, File)