Faced with Iran’s threats of retaliation against Israel, tension is rising in the Middle East this Thursday, April 11. The Jewish state has strengthened its defenses and says it is ready to deal with any scenario.
A widely considered scenario. According to information from the Bloomberg agency, an attack by Iran against Israel is possible. Tehran could carry out a “massive attack” on the Jewish state in the coming days through drone or missile strikes. It is “no longer a question of knowing ‘if’, but ‘when'”, specifies an anonymous source to the American media. A strong risk of reprisals from Tehran against the Jewish state after the deadly strike carried out in early April against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had also assured that Israel would be “punished” for the attack on the Iranian consulate which left 16 dead, including seven members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. “If Iran carries out an attack from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran,” replied the Israeli Foreign Minister. For several months, Israel has been striking several border countries such as Iran, known to be one of the supporters of Hamas, the terrorist organization behind the October 7 attack.
According to the media Axios, the head of the United States Central Command (Centcom) in charge of operations in the Middle East, General Erik Kurilla, is traveling to Israel on Thursday April 11 to take stock of the situation with the minister. of defense Yoav Gallant and define the response to a possible Iranian offensive against Israel. Faced with an attack that would be unprecedented, demands for de-escalation are intensifying. The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Qatar have reportedly spoken on the phone with their Iranian counterpart to calm tensions in the region.
According to Bloomberg, faced with this possible scenario, “Israel’s Western allies have been informed that Israeli government and military installations could be targeted, but that civilian installations should not be.” Emergency plans are being developed. Israel reportedly expects “this attack to take place before launching a new ground offensive against Hamas in Rafah.”
Information confirmed by Joe Biden himself, who declared during a joint press conference at the White House that Iran “is threatening to launch a significant attack against Israel.” The American president thus reaffirmed his support for Israel. “As I told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security, in the face of these threats from Iran and its allies, is unwavering. […] We will do everything we can to protect the security of Israel,” he said. In a sign of the high tensions in the region, German airline Lufthansa has halted its flights to Tehran “due to the current situation in the Middle East.”
