Fireworks in Israel, Courtesy of The Islamic Republic of Iran

"There was a serious attack on us and there will be serious consequences."

"We have plans, and we will act in the time and place we decide."

"The air defence system is fully operational, detecting and intercepting threats wherever necessary, even at this moment. However, the defence is not hermetic."

"We are focusing in the area of those villages, an area next to our border."

"We're not going to Beirut. We're not going to the cities in southern Lebanon."

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, IDF spokesman

Explosions lit up the night skies above Jerusalem as Israeli air defences and aircraft targeted the missiles  AFP

 

The Islamic Republic of Iran committed itself to full all-out war with Israel. The 80% of Iranians who despise their theocratic government, along with the paltry 20% that support it, will all, in the final analysis, be placed in danger as a deliberate action of this decision. This is a regime that is no different than the proxy terrorist groups they have cultivated, instructed and armed, to pose an existential threat to Israel and in so doing by installing themselves within the greater civilian population, using them as a shield to protect themselves.

This is the type of tactic that vicious Islamists view as a weak spot in Israel's defences. A nation that goes out of its way even during the most trying episodes of a conflict, to avoid as many civilian casualties as it possibly can. In contrast, the psychopathic terrorist groups; beginning with the Islamic Republic and including Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis, and the Shiite terror groups in Iraq and Syria loyal to Iran and the goal of Israel's destruction are only too willing to sacrifice their own.

Knowing that Israel places itself in a bind with its humanitarian instincts to preserve life, an altruism foreign to the nature of terrorists everywhere, deliberately disadvantaging Israel which still manages to overcome that obstacle. After firing close to 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening, when the Jewish's state's population was ordered into bomb shelters, sirens sounding their wail of impending danger, Iran now awaits its due response.

Israel's anti-missile system intercepts rockets after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on October 1, 2024.   Amir Cohen/Reuters

 

Its oil fields are vulnerable; its nuclear sites identified in schematics carefully drawn by Israeli intelligence, along with military bases of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their headquarters. Ayatollah Khamenei is 'safely' and judiciously tucked away in a secret location impervious to detection (except for the fact that Israeli intelligence is reliant on its humint resources for good reason) and Iranians wait with bated breath for an inevitable outcome.

 

The long-awaited Islamic Republic's plan for an assault on Israel from the south, the north and points between and those distant, is on the near horizon. Israel's military has continued to amaze outside military sources by its nimble, effective responses to danger on many fronts having long anticipated that this time would arrive. Iran justified its barrage of missiles citing Hamas's Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah and Revolutionary Guard General Abbas Nilforushan killed last week in Beirut in an Israeli airstrike. And thus, the 'first wave'.

Most of the strikes were deflected by the Iron Dome, and no reports were issued of serious injury. Other than the death of a Palestinian in Gaza, hit by a descending projectile. The attack was monitored by U.S. President Biden from the White House Situation Room, where the U.S. military was directed to assist and to shoot down missiles targeting Israel. In the near region American ships and aircraft are positioned. Israel had informed Washington an Iranian attack was imminent.

 

Millions of Israelis rushed to shelters after being warned of the missile attack  Reuters

 

And for 90 minutes missiles rained down on Israel. Iran received a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "There is nowhere in the Middle East (that) Israel cannot reach." Southern Lebanese communities were warned by the Israel Defense Forces to vacate the vicinity as it embarks on a limited ground operation against Hezbollah targets. Hezbollah has an interim acting leader who promised Hezbollah will continue its conflict with Israel.

Another senior Hezbollah operative met death on the edge of Beirut in an airstrike; Mohammed Jaafar Qassir was struck on Tuesday. In charge of Hezbollah's Unit 4400, shipping weapons from Iran to Lebanon, and supervisor of Hezbollah's precision-guided missiles development, Qassir will no doubt be missed. As much for providing hundreds of millions to Hezbollah in recent years as for his military expertise. 

Close to daily fire traded across the border between Lebanon and Israel since October 8, Hezbollah had decided it would declare war against Israel in support of Hamas. The result has been 90,000 Israelis displaced while Hezbollah bombards northern Israel, setting fire to its forests and farmland. Villages in southern Lebanon are due for dismantling by an Israeli operation embarked on creating a wide no-man's-land between the two at the Lebanese border, negating future opportunities for bombardment.