The United States said it has indications that Iran is planning an “imminent” ballistic missile attack on Israel, in the latest escalation between the two countries, a senior White House official told Global News.
“We are actively supporting defense preparations to defend Israel against this attack. The official wrote that any direct military attack by Iran against Israel would have dire consequences for Iran.
This is not the first direct attack on Israel by Iran, which launched projectiles in April, although few of them reached their targets. Many were shot down while others appeared to fail on launch or crash in flight.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement on Tuesday that Israel faces “major challenges” in its fight against an Iranian axis. He urged the public to listen to public safety guidelines issued by the Army’s Home Front Command, but did not directly refer to the missile threat.
American ships and aircraft are already stationed in the region to assist Israel in the event of an attack from Iran. There are three US Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean, an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Oman, and fighter planes deployed throughout the region. They all have the ability to shoot down incoming missiles.
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The potential threat from Iran comes a day after the Israeli army began what they described as limited, local and targeted raids against Iran-backed Hezbollah in the border region of southern Lebanon.
On that day, Netanyahu warned Iran that “there is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country,” accusing the Iranian government of plunging the Middle East “into a deeper war” at the expense of its people.
It also comes on the heels of the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah — the most powerful leader in Tehran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and American interests in the Middle East — one of the heaviest strikes in decades on both Hezbollah and Iran, and coming after two weeks of intense airstrikes. .
The killing of Nasrallah, along with assassinations and systematic attacks on the group’s communications devices, constitutes the biggest blow to the Shiite movement since it was established by Iran in 1982 to fight Israel.
—With files from Reggie Cecchini of Global News and the Associated Press
&Copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
