Right, so Benjamin Netanyahu’s empire is crumbling, as Iran’s latest strikes on Israel in retaliation for yet more Israeli overnight strikes, hit at the heart not just of Israel’s war machine, targeting airbases, and military headquarters and installations, but also vital infrastructure. The sheer scale of the latest Iranian salvos have also flagged up an even greater problem for Netanyahu in the immediate term, having started a fight with Iran he clearly thought he’d either win fast or the US would come quickly to his side, as Israel’s air defences may very soon be no more, burning through interceptor missiles he can’t replace and despite orders to lock down the Israeli population and a blackout of state media to keep people in Israel and in the dark, social media continues to report the scenes of absolute carnage from Israel, whilst hundreds are now fleeing the country in small boats to Cyprus. All of this and Iran are currently claiming their strikes thusfar are still only warnings and more punitive strikes are yet to be made. Well given the damage they’ve wrought on Israel so far, that this latest strike also included the first use of an all new surprise for Israel and with more surprises still promised, what exactly does an Iranian strike that they mean to actually punish with look like and is Netanyahu, in the middle of a nightmare he cannot get out of now, foolish enough to try and find out?
Right, so Israel is currently reeling under the most intense and sustained assault it has ever experienced from Iran, possibly from anyone in its 77 year history. With Operation True Promise III having entered its tenth and eleventh phases, Iranian missile and drone attacks have crippled key military, intelligence, industrial, and symbolic targets deep inside Israeli territory. These strikes have gone far beyond previous patterns of regional tit-for-tat, marking a turning point in the conflict and exposing the severe vulnerabilities in Israel’s much-vaunted defence infrastructure. For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the situation has spiralled into a full-blown nightmare. As the cost of initiating unprovoked attacks on Iran becomes clearer, so too does the collapse of Israeli deterrence and any pretence of military superiority.
One of the most significant blows over the last 24 hours came with the successful Iranian missile strike on the headquarters of Unit 8200, Israel’s elite cyber and signals intelligence agency, located near Tel Aviv, leaving it in ruins. Unit 8200 is central to Israel’s surveillance and electronic warfare capabilities, comparable to the NSA in the United States, or GCHQ here in the UK. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has confirmed that this strike was in retaliation for Israel’s attack on Iran’s IRIB state television headquarters in Tehran the day before, footage of which went viral on social media and has turned news anchor Sahar Emami into a global symbol of resistance as she continued her broadcast even as the IRIB building was still on fire. By targeting such a symbolic and tactical asset, Iran has directly targeted the very core of Israel’s intelligence apparatus, shattering any illusion that Israel can strike with impunity and remain untouched and will severely impact any shady cyber operations Israel may have been engaged in.
Simultaneously, Iranian forces bombed key airbases in southern Israel, including the Hatzerim and Netzarim Airbase, from which Israel has launched drone operations and long-range missile attacks on Iranian facilities, as well as launching jets towards Iran. Satellite imagery and leaked footage posted on social media, despite Israel’s continuing media blackout, show extensive damage to aircraft hangars, fuel depots, and radar installations. Israel’s efforts to suppress images of destruction have proven ineffective; amateur footage continues to emerge online of Iranian missiles impacting and cutting through those flailing air defences that were once talked up so much, laying bare the scale of Iranian precision and Israeli vulnerability.
In another devastating and highly significant blow, Iranian missiles hit the Gilot suburbs of Tel Aviv, home to what many international analysts believe is one of the clandestine organisations going, because in those suburbs sits the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service. What makes this strike especially damning is that Mossad’s HQ is one of those state assets that has been intentionally placed among residential buildings—showing Israel to be a state that uses its own civilians as de facto human shields and which casts another light on the fact Israel won’t let any of its own people leave the country, allegedly for safety, but how is it keeping them safe by keeping them in the line of fire?
One of the most symbolically charged attacks came when Iranian missiles reduced the Weizmann Institute of Science, south of Tel Aviv, to rubble. This institution, with strong links to Israel’s military-industrial complex and is believed to contribute to Israel’s nuclear research, and was hit by a barrage of precision-guided munitions. Footage has shown fires engulfing labs and administrative buildings. Iran described the strike as a direct message against Israel’s scientific contributions to military aggression and given Israel’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear and scientific research as well, this seems a very on the nose target in that respect.
In what the IRGC is calling the most intense wave of attacks so far, hundreds of missiles and drones were launched in coordinated salvos across multiple Israeli cities including Tel Aviv, Haifa, Ashdod and Be’er Sheva. An excerpt from Press TV reading:
‘The latest wave of the retaliatory operation, which began late on Friday in response to the Israeli regime’s brutal aggression against the Islamic Republic, commenced at approximately 1:30 a.m. Iran time.
Despite heavy media censorship imposed by the Zionist regime, numerous videos surfaced on social media showing the skies over Tel Aviv and Haifa lit up by a barrage of long-range, advanced Iranian missiles breaching Israel’s three-tiered missile interceptors.
Several of the missiles, some of them being used for the first time, hit their intended targets with precision, including military and intelligence sites belonging to the regime.
Images circulating on social media platforms showed plumes of smoke and fire billowing up in the air at various sensitive and strategic Israeli military intelligence centres.
Israeli settlers, according to some Israeli media reports, were angry at the so-called 'Home Command' about sirens not blaring on time to allow them to hide in underground bunkers.’
A few things I’ll pick up on there, but firstly the message of missiles being used for the first time, an all new nasty surprise for Israel as this was because among the missiles fires was Iran’s Fattah hypersonic missile, which Tehran claims can evade all existing air defence systems.
Fattah, which means "the opener" is a precision-guided two-stage solid-fuelled missile with a range of 1,400 km and a terminal speed of Mach 13 to 15, which Iran unveiled in June 2023.
This speed, along with movable nozzles that allow the missile to manoeuvre in all directions both in and out of the Earth's atmosphere, makes it immune to interception by all existing anti-missile systems, according to military experts and it certainly seems to have proven that, but then we’ve been watching many an Iranian missile get through the Iron Dome haven’t we?
Other missiles and drones simultaneously struck petroleum storage facilities in Haifa the Bezan Complex being struck again, having been shut down temporarily after strikes the other day, it is now completely offline, shutting down Israel’s largest oil refinery and halting production of 60% of Israel’s diesel and nearly half its petrol output, not only causing significant shortages for civilian use, but could cripple Israel’s domestic logistics and military resupply chains for weeks.
As the intensity of the strikes grows, Israel’s internal stability is rapidly eroding. Commercial flights have been grounded by government decree, and land border checkpoints are under military lockdown. As I’ve spoken about before, some have been trying to reach Cyprus by boat to escape from the carnage
Israeli news outlet Haaretz have called it the Escape Flotilla, an excerpt of their coverage stating that:
‘The marina in Herzliya has recently taken on the atmosphere of a makeshift terminal. Starting at seven in the morning, people begin to arrive – mostly alone, some in couples, a few with families – dragging trolleys and scanning the docks for the yacht scheduled to carry them to Cyprus, and from there, to anywhere but here.
Facebook groups dedicated to sea-based exits show that hundreds of people are now trying to leave Israel this way. And where there is demand, there are always those ready to supply – for a price. In Herzliya, as well as in other marinas like Haifa and Ashkelon, owners of small yachts are organizing trips with groups of no more than ten passengers. On that particular morning in Herzliya, at least a hundred people were preparing to set sail. The Population and Immigration Authority has not yet been able to assess the scale of the phenomenon.’
Literally hundreds of Israelis are now doing this, fleeing by private yachts and fishing boats to Cyprus, circumventing state controls. Doesn’t say a lot for their faith in their national leadership and it’s a story getting precious little coverage, again, trying to play down what is going on in Israel, to control the narrative so it is notable that Haaretz have done a piece on this.
Bomb shelters are filled to capacity in nearly every major city now as well, but even in a time of heightened fear, Israeli racism plays a part. Due to filling up, Israeli citizens are increasingly barring Palestinian residents of Israel from entering the shelters, claiming they are “not meant for them.” This blatant act of apartheid inside so-called safe zones underscores the depraved way of thinking within Israel during crisis. Some in the media might call it a fracturing of society, but this is literally what Israeli society is built on – white supremacy, colonialism and racist ideological claims to land they don’t have over a people they look down on and despise because it is their land by rights.
Iran’s onslaught has for days been overwhelming the Iron Dome and David’s Sling air defence systems, which are no longer able to intercept the sheer volume of incoming projectiles, if they ever could to begin with really, but there’s an underlying reason for that too which I found rather fascinating. According to a reports and allegedly confirmed by Israeli insiders speaking off the record to European media outlets, Israel may run out of interceptors entirely if the current pace of Iranian missile barrages continues. This fascinated me because I thought of all the arms shipments Israel has been receiving from the US, why have interceptors not been coming in sufficient number? Are offensive missiles being prioritised, because these same reports have cited an interceptor shortage since Iran’s first retaliation against Israel more than a year ago. So this vulnerability is not new and yet Netanyahu still chose to make war on Iran anyway. It’s deranged and hasn’t considered public safety at all.
The psychological toll of watching Iranian missiles explode across cities that Israelis once considered secure is becoming evident, so news getting out about interceptor shortages will enrage many. Every siren, every shockwave, brings panic. Every social media leak of burning buildings and military assets in ruins is a fresh humiliation for Netanyahu’s government and a bigger headache for him, desperately wanting Donald Trump to help him fight Iran now.
Iranian officials insist that all attacks so far have been defensive responses to Israeli aggression and should be seen as warnings, having stated they haven’t even begun punitive measures yet, which is mind boggling and really does make you wonder what else they can bring to bear.
As demonstrated by the successful deployment of the Fattah missile, Iran has proven its ability to reach deep into Israeli territory with minimal response time and they have said they’ve still got more surprises that haven’t been seen yet.
In a predictable escalation, especially with Netanyahu begging him to go to war and save Israel for him, the overbearing orange oaf that is the US President, Donald Trump has inserted himself into the narrative by threatening Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with assassination because they know where he is and they have simply chosen not to do so yet, and that Iran should surrender. The response was swift and unequivocal though with Khamenei warning that any US military intervention would be met with retaliation unlike anything seen in the region’s history. Iran’s confidence is backed not only by its advanced missile arsenal but also by the international support it is garnering.
While Western leaders continue parroting the line that “Israel has the right to defend itself,” the rest of the world sees through the farce. Twenty-one Arab and Islamic nations have issued formal condemnations of Israel’s “brutal and unprovoked aggression” against Iran to date. These countries emphasize that Iran’s actions have remained proportionate and that it is Israel which has destabilised the region by striking civilian infrastructure in Tehran.
Despite Israel’s best efforts to prevent reporting on the destruction within its borders, footage continues to reach the global public. Independent news outlets, activists, and citizen journalists have turned every smartphone into a broadcast station. From the burned-out Weizmann Institute to the missile craters in Gilot, the truth cannot be contained by Netanyahu’s diktat and his authority is crumbling as a result.
Netanyahu’s disinformation campaign is failing. The world can see that Israeli cities are burning. The world can see that military bases have been reduced to rubble. The world can see that the Israeli defence narrative—that it is a tiny nation under siege—is in tatters when it is responsible for initiating war with one of the most heavily armed nations in the region and doing so all the while it is of course still committing genocide in Gaza.
Iran’s devastating and coordinated strikes on Israel have rewritten the power dynamics of the Middle East. No longer can Israel assume its military supremacy provides it a blank check to engage in regional violence without consequence and by having picked on the most powerful nation in the Middle East, they’re being taught a harsh lesson that Netanyahu is wishing he’d never started and is desperate for the US to get him out of. Netanyahu, who pursued confrontation with Iran as a means to prop up his collapsing government and distract from the genocide in Gaza, has instead opened the gates of Hell. What was meant to be a surgical show of force has become an open-ended conflict with a regional power that has proven it can strike, cripple, and warn with impunity and is basically saying all the while, that they’re only getting warmed up.
Netanyahu has lost. He cannot win a forever war because he’s losing assets, losing his own people, cannot keep up the pace of Iranian response to Israeli strikes, yet if he stops he’s finished. It’s just a question of how much of Israel is he going to take down with him?
For more on the state of Israel’s air defences collapsing under the fury of Iranian assault, check out this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch.
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