Israel is preparing to launch a \u201cmajor attack\u201d against Iran in response to an Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack against Tel Aviv, an Israeli official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles on Israel in what Tehran said was a retaliation for the recent assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders and a Revolutionary Guard commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIsrael is preparing to conduct a major attack against Iran, with preparations including fortifying defenses in anticipation of any potential Iranian response,\u201d the unnamed official said in statements carried by the public broadcaster KAN late Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The source, however, did not provide any details about the list of targets expected to be hit in the Israeli attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the Iranian strike, Israel has been engaged in intensive consultations with its key ally, the US, to determine potential targets and its defensive needs to counter any Iranian retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Saturday, the Israeli army said that the US had deployed a THAAD air defense battery in Israel, designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles, in preparation for possible Iranian strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the arrival of THAAD, Israel’s air defense relied on three systems: Arrow for long-range missile interceptions, David\u2019s Sling for mid-range, and the Iron Dome for short-range. All three systems had struggled to intercept many of the Iranian missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israeli media reports speculate that the impending attack on Iran could target oil or nuclear facilities, amid fears of a potential regional war.
Tehran has vowed to respond \u201cpainfully\u201d to any Israeli attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel and Iran have long viewed each other as adversaries and have exchanged accusations of cyberattacks and other forms of aggression for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The threats come as Israel continues a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 42,600 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 99,800 injured, according to local health authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israel is preparing to launch a \u201cmajor attack\u201d against Iran in response to an Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack against Tel Aviv, an Israeli official said. Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles on Israel in what Tehran said was a retaliation for the recent assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders and a Revolutionary Guard commander. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":8946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,396,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-latest","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}