{"id":301048,"date":"2024-12-28T05:57:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T05:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=301048"},"modified":"2024-12-29T09:07:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T09:07:33","slug":"houthi-missile-targets-tel-aviv-airport-as-israel-mulls-strike-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=301048","title":{"rendered":"Houthi missile targets Tel Aviv airport as Israel mulls strike on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keiron Monks \u2013 inews.co.uk Dec 27, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Conflict between Israel<\/a> and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen has escalated again with a missile attack on Tel Aviv, as fears grow that an attack on Iran itself could be imminent.<\/p>\n

The Houthis<\/a> claimed they launched a ballistic missile that disrupted flights at Tel Aviv\u2019s main airport on Friday.<\/p>\n

It follows Israeli air strikes on Yemen on Thursday. Some Israeli officials have called for strikes against Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said a missile was shot down by air defence at about 4am local time. Arrivals to Ben Gurion airport were briefly suspended. Air raid sirens sounded across much of the country, sending millions to bomb shelters, with 18 minor injuries reported as people rushed to shelters.<\/p>\n

The Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen, and receive funding and training from Iran, claimed: \u201cThe missile succeeded in reaching its target despite the enemy\u2019s censorship, and the operation resulted in casualties and the cessation of navigation at the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attack followed a wave of strikes by Israel on Thursday on what it claimed were Houthi-linked targets in Yemen. Six people were killed and dozens injured. The main airport in Yemen\u2019s capital, Sana\u2019a, was hit, narrowly missing the World Health Organisation chief<\/a>, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and several power stations.<\/p>\n

The Houthis have intensified drone and missile attacks on Israel throughout the war in Gaza<\/a>, in alliance with other members of the Iran-led \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d that includes Hamas<\/a>, Hezbollah<\/a>, and Iraqi militias.<\/p>\n

Another Houthi missile strike on Tel Aviv last Saturday injured dozens. The group said on Thursday that it could \u201cexpand the target bank in occupied Palestine to include more vital facilities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israel has responded with increasing force and is signalling that it is gearing up for a sustained campaign against the Houthis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just getting started with them,\u201d said Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>, after Thursday\u2019s strikes. Defence Minister Israel Katz suggested Israel would use the decapitation strategy employed against Hamas and Hezbollah. \u201cWe will hunt down all Houthi leaders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Israel is unlikely to be able to degrade the Yemeni group as effectively as it did Hamas and Hezbollah, according to Professor Kobi Michael, an Israeli military analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies and Misgav Institute think tanks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are located across a very large area in mountains and deserts so their locations are not easy to detect,\u201d he told The i Paper<\/em>. \u201cWe don\u2019t have intelligence as good as we have with regard Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, or Hamas. And we are talking about a distance of 1,200km, so the circumstances are pretty complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Israel is likely to lean on the US-led alliance \u2013 which includes the UK, which is already engaged in a military campaign against the Houthis over their attacks on Red Sea shipping<\/a> \u2013 and try to impose a maritime blockade to cut off the group\u2019s weapons supply lines.<\/p>\n

Israel is also said to be considering options to respond to the Houthis through strikes against their patron, Iran. Mossad chief David Barnea has advised Netanyahu<\/a> to \u201cgo for the head, Iran,\u201d according to reports in several Israeli news outlets that cited official sources.<\/p>\n

Benny Gantz, the Israeli MP and former war cabinet minister, said this week<\/a> that Israel should \u201ctarget Iran directly,\u201d adding that \u201cthe solution to putting an end to [Houthi] attacks lies in Tehran\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israeli hawks, such as former prime minister Naftali Bennett, have argued<\/a> that the damage inflicted by Israel on Iran\u2019s allies during the war in Gaza have created a unique opportunity for an overwhelming military campaign against Iran.<\/p>\n

Israel also claims to have inflicted damage on Iran\u2019s air defences and military installations during an exchange of fire<\/a> in October.<\/p>\n

Dr Michael believes an assault could be imminent. \u201cNetanyahu is willing to attack Iran and he understands that this is a very narrow window of opportunity,\u201d he said, suggesting that president-elect Donald Trump would prefer Israel to strike before his inauguration on 20 January.<\/p>\n

But Sina Toossi, an Iran specialist at the Center for International Policy in Washington, said such an attack could backfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Israeli attack on Iran is possible but fraught with significant risks for both Israel and the US,\u201d he said. \u201cDespite setbacks in its regional alliances, Iran retains formidable capabilities, including a robust arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones, along with the capacity for asymmetric retaliation across multiple fronts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael\u2019s struggle to decisively neutralise Hezbollah in the recent conflict underscores these risks. Despite Israel\u2019s devastating attacks on Lebanon, Hezbollah\u2019s missile and drone strikes continued unabated, even escalating in the days before the ceasefire, targeting central Israel and Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

\u201cA military strike on Iran would likely yield similar results \u2013 failing to achieve a decisive victory while provoking severe Iranian retaliation and potentially accelerating Tehran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli hawks are reportedly urging Netanyahu to strike the Houthis main backers before Trump enters office after rocket fire from Yemen halts flights at Tel Aviv\u2019s main airport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":301049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[51,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Iran","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301050,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301048\/revisions\/301050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/301049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}