In the West Bank, hundreds of Jewish invaders carried out organized attacks in the city of Nablus and set fire to many Palestinian houses.
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The Iranian response will most likely be symbolic, just like last time. They don’t want to inflict any serious damage to Israel, because this is exactly what Netanyahu is looking for, as a reason to escalate.
Haniyeh’s killing shows just how potent Israel is compared to Iran, and Iranian leaders will not want to put their lives on the line just to avange a Palestinian. They did almost nothing after their own Soleimani was killed, and they will do just another show in honor of Haniyeh.
At this point, it is obvious that Hezbollah and Iran are afraid of any escalation, while Netanyahu is looking for a pretext to escalate the war. Israel is aggressively targeting leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah tring to force an answer from Iran/Hezbollah, but that answer is just not coming.
Nethanyahu needs the war to continue and to be perceived as justified by the Israeli public, because when the war ends, his days in power end too. He wants a larger and more significant war. Iranians on the other hand want to mantain the status quo while saving face, because they have nothing to win from a war, and a lot to lose.
Israel won't assassinate Iranian top political leaders (like president or foreign minister) even if there is an escalation. No one has done anything like for a longtime. Of course Iranians have shown incompetence. They can't protect their leaders. Even US couldn't if Israel really wanted to assassinate the POTUS. But the reason no one does that, is because you can't protect your leaders either against decent sized state actors once you go down that rabit hole. People think world leaders are safe because of crazy secret service stuff. It's actually MAD that ensure their safety.
By assasinating leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel is sending a strong message to Iran. It shows that Israel is willing to assasinate leaders if it has to, unlike other countries who are fearful to cross this line.
Netanyahu is power hungry, and for him losing power is the equivalent of losing his life, so he is not afraid o escalate at any level if he has no alternative when it comes to staying in power.
Israel has always been bolder in crossing red lines than other countries, and this is why everyone in the region fears them.
The combination of a highly advanced military backed by the US and a psychopathic leader like Netanyahu makes Israel extremely unpredictable and dangerous. This is why all other regional leaders will only bark but will not bite.
Netanyahu as seen from an Iranian agent trailing him
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Is it verified though? Not taken by some journo?
Of course it is a lower level escalation, but Israel is showing that it is willing to raise the stakes if necessary, and this will make other leaders show restraint.Killing leaders of non state entities is quite different than killing a state actor's leadership. The problem is if Israel escalate and does that, Netanyahu won't be around much longer as he will be killed also sooner or later.
They may be targeting logistics and weapons traffic.Apperantly, Israel is pre-empting in Lebanon and Syria?
They may be targeting logistics and weapons traffic.
This comes after the Iranian MoD urged its citizens to not shoot photograph the military equipment traffic that they will witness. It is clear that intense preparations are going on from all the sides.
The more the US will be involved, the more foreign powers will follow.If this does escalate, it will be very interesting to see how Iranian/ Hezbollah air defense does in handling Israeli
and American
F-35s. Can they handle the potential combination of sea launched TLAMs and air launched JASSMs and a variety of JDAMs?
I doubt the Americans actually get air power involved in the conflict for any offensive purposes, but if they do, I'd like to see how Iran does. They've been talking up their domestic air defense systems, as well as their Russian systems.
Very likely people themselves are compromised. We saw this before the Ukraine invasion, every single thing US intelligence said became true.One thing I always get baffled by, is that US and Western intelligence agencies in general almost always knows hours in advance.
I understand how electro-optical sensing/radar/SIGINT/COMINT/OSINT works. But if I use my secure fiber optic network only for Command and control, (no emissions) and order few dozens of launchers to come out of the base and fire on very short notice at night, I can't figure how could still US knows it's coming.
Intelligence is a very important especially in this case. I have no doubt that more resource is used by both the US and Israeli services and armed forces to monitor Hezbollah's movement than what we can anticipate from our screens.One thing I always get baffled by, is that US and Western intelligence agencies in general almost always knows hours in advance.
I understand how electro-optical sensing/radar/SIGINT/COMINT/OSINT works. But if I use my secure fiber optic network only for Command and control, (no emissions) and order few dozens of launchers to come out of the base and fire on very short notice at night, I can't figure how could still US knows it's coming.
Intelligence is a very important especially in this case. I have no doubt that more resource is used by both the US and Israeli services and armed forces to monitor Hezbollah's movement than what we can anticipate from our screens.
I am not an expert, but next to these methods of intelligence gathering you listed we should also add HUMINT, cyber surveillance and pattern analysis.
The hot points of Hezbollah are more or less known. By enhanced surveillance one can detect unusual activity and conduct pre-emptive strikes to disrupt logistics as we saw earlier in Syria. There are certainly not a thousand ways to initiate this order and Israel (allies included) probably works on interpreting patterns and use their HUMINT and cyber surveillance options as well. Analyzing changes in terrain is also a thing.
Rocket/missile supplies are spread all around Lebanon into multiple storage sites, often integrated into a reinforced tunnel network and civilian infrastructure. Apart from static launching points I believe Hezbollah also uses mobile launchers which they periodically move from place to place. If these launchers movement is intercepted it may give the right signal. As much as Hezbollah is ready for attack there is certainly a preparation phase in order to ensure that attack of such a scale goes as smooth and coordinated as possible. As much as we talk about the movement of equipment I think civilian and social behavior are also an indicator. Large masses of civilians moving in a pattern, evacuations are a big signal to what's coming. I think there is a lot of "chatter" going on during this preparation phase. Between this chatter and the actual order there is for sure the moment of "the calm before the storm".
I mean that all this is not happening for the first time. The services of Israel and the US certainly are looking for a some kind of pattern and are monitoring everything listed by you and also me closely. We didn't talk about it too much, but I think HUMINT and cyber surveillance play a critical role in all this.
EDIT: Iranian State owned IRIB TV3 channel:
"In the coming hours, the world will witness exciting scenes and very important developments."
@Afif I think there's no need to be CIA to know hours in advance![]()
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The Iranians are truly showmen. We should give it to them.
EDIT: Iranian State owned IRIB TV3 channel:
"In the coming hours, the world will witness exciting scenes and very important developments."
@Afif I think there's no need to be CIA to know hours in advance![]()
![]()
The Iranians are truly showmen. We should give it to them