Killing Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran was a strategic mistake by Tel Aviv as it is currently confronted with war at several fronts and the move can only exacerbate the situation for Israel.
Following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital of Tehran this Wednesday, the consequences of the assassination for Israel, as the most probable responsible for the act of terror, can even worsen the already-alarming situation for the Jewish state.
Since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7 last year, Israel has been strangled in a multi-front war with Hamas, Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi movement, and resistance groups in Iraq and Syria. Not to mention the indirect war that Israel has been fighting for years with Iran, a war in shadow that has been increasing in depth and frequency of attacks in the past few months.
And now, killing Haniyeh will surely rise tensions between Israel and its enemies. This is while Israel is currently too weak to provoke a retaliatory response from the resistance front.
Israel military not ready to face Hezbollah; Israeli media admits
In a report this Monday, Israel’s Jerusalem Post strongly questioned the Israeli army regarding what the report called “its lack of preparation in the face of Hezbollah rocket attacks”, and stated that it is investigating the incident at the Majdal Shams in which 12 Israeli children and teenagers were killed and dozens were injured. According to the report, “a bomb shelter was located exactly near where the missiles hit, and most of the casualties occurred as people were running to the shelter, but the warning time for them to reach this safe place was too short.”
“Why did the intelligence of the Northern Command of Israel not give an early warning to the residents of the North Golan to take shelter before the attack. If there was information, why was it not translated into defensive measures? If they did not have information, how can such an army be relied on to protect the lives of Israelis?” the report further noted.
Iron Dome is no longer unbreakable!
Some experts have also questioned Israel’s defense system in recent days, specifically the Iron Dom, which for many Israelis is a symbol of effective defense against missiles launched at Israel from abroad.
“Besides the fact that Iron Dome can intercept over 90 percent of missiles only when it is dealing with a handful hundreds of missiles, not thousands, it should also be noted that many of Hezbollah’s rockets are unguided, short-range systems, but the group also has more sophisticated weapons, and major difference between Hamas and Hezbollah is that Hezbollah has precision-guided weaponry. These weapons can threaten Iron Dome in another way: by attacking the missile launchers themselves,” says Fabian Hinz, an expert on Middle Eastern missile arsenals at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Berlin.
Taking into account Israel’s inability to continue the war at several fronts as was discussed above, assassinating Haniyeh at this critical time can only make things more sophisticated for political and military decision makers in Tel Aviv. In the battle ground, Israel must expect more lethal attacks by resistance groups, which can very well lead to the killing of tens, if not hundreds, if Israelis. On the political arena, what Israel did was a state terrorism and also a disregard to Iran’s state sovereignty. Therefore, the move will surely have grave consequences for Tel Aviv and can inflict huge damages to Israel’s international face already ruined by killing tens of thousands of Gazans.
