Israel carried out a series of airstrikes against Iran on Saturday, the Israeli military said. The strikes seen and heard by residents in the capital, Tehran, came weeks after Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, forcing millions of Israelis to take cover in bomb shelters. Iran said its …
Read More »Israel Struck Air Defenses Around Critical Iranian Energy Sites, Officials Say
Israel’s attacks on Iran early Saturday destroyed air-defense systems set up to protect several critical oil and petrochemical refineries, as well as systems guarding a large gas field and a major port in southern Iran, according to three Iranian officials and three senior Israeli defense officials. The sites targeted by …
Read More »Israeli Attack Puts Iranians on Edge: ‘The Vibe Is Not Normal’
Iranians voiced a sense of anxiety and uncertainty on Saturday after a round of retaliatory strikes by Israel on their country, but some said they felt a dim hope about what may lie ahead. “Today at work, everyone was speaking of the attacks,” said Soheil, a 37-year-old engineer who lives …
Read More »Israel’s Strike Marks New Phase of Conflict, but Stops Short of All-Out War
Israel’s retaliatory attack on Iran on Saturday morning marked the start of a new and more dangerous phase in the two countries’ yearslong conflict, but it appeared, at least for now, to have stopped short of prompting an all-out war, analysts said. The attack was the first time that Israel …
Read More »In Deciding Whether to Retaliate, Iran Faces a Dilemma
Iran faces a dilemma after the Israeli strikes on Saturday. If it retaliates, it risks further escalation at a time when its economy is struggling, its allies are faltering, its military vulnerability is clear and its leadership succession is in play. If it does not, it risks looking weak to …
Read More »On the Israel-Lebanon Border, a Town With a Past Worries for Its Future
Once a picturesque Israeli mountain resort with panoramic views into Lebanon, Metula is now off limits to civilians. Under fire for months from Hezbollah’s rockets and missiles, every other house has by now been damaged or lies in ruins. Over the past year of fighting, it has been one of …
Read More »Fighting Rages in Gaza and Lebanon, Despite Killing of Hamas Leader
Israeli forces pounded targets in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya on Saturday, killing at least 33 people and injuring dozens of others in the bombardment, a Palestinian emergency services group said. Israel has surrounded Jabaliya for a week as it seeks to root out Hamas fighters who it says …
Read More »Leaked U.S. Intelligence Suggests Israel Is Preparing to Strike Iran
The leak of a pair of highly classified U.S. intelligence documents describing recent satellite images of Israeli military preparations for a potential strike on Iran offers a window into the intense American concerns about Israel’s plans. It also has U.S. officials working to understand the size of the improper disclosure. …
Read More »Despite Sinwar’s Death, Mideast Peace May Still Be Elusive
The killing of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader whose decision to attack Israel more than a year ago set off the ever-widening war tearing up the Middle East, could be the key to ending the bloodshed. Now that Israel has decapitated Hamas in Gaza, the thinking goes, it might be …
Read More »Sinwar’s Death Highlights Israel’s Long Quest for Deterrence
A quarter-century before Israel was founded, the Zionist leader Zeev Jabotinsky articulated an idea that has come to define the way Israelis protect their country. A Jewish state, he wrote in 1923, would succeed only by projecting enough strength to force its enemies to accept it as a permanent reality. …
Read More »