Israel has been braced for a major attack since last month when a missile strike killed 12 youngsters in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Israel responded by killing a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut.
A day after that operation, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Tehran, drawing Iranian vows of retaliation against Israel.
“We are on the escalation line at the point where it is really very close to a regional war,” Major-General (retired) Israel Ziv told local Israeli media, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.
“Somehow, the scope of the fire and the intensity is kept at a certain level that Israel manages to cope with it … It is clear that this is heading towards a more serious escalation,” Ziv noted, adding, “I don’t think any of us really know, even within the [security] system, what exactly the Iranians and Hezbollah intend to do.”
US sends guided missile submarine
Meanwhile, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday had told US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that Iran was making preparations for a large-scale military attack on Israel.
Shortly afterwards, the Pentagon released a statement wherein it revealed that the US is sending more troops and military hardware to the Middle East as it seeks to increase the resources available to “defend Israel”.
“Austin “reiterated the United States’ commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel and noted the strengthening of U.S. military force posture and capabilities throughout the Middle East in light of escalating regional tensions,” read the statement.
This includes sending a guided missile submarine to the region, as well as accelerating the transit of a aircraft carrier strike group equipped with F-35C fighter jets.
Over 40,000 people killed
The Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip killed some 1,200 people, with more than 250 taken into captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies, in one of the most devastating blows against Israel in its history.
In response, Israeli forces have flattened Gaza, displaced most of the population and killed around 40,000 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry, in a war that has caused horror around the world.
On Saturday, scores of people were killed in Israeli strikes on a school building in Gaza City that the military said targeted fighters from the amred wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Gaza health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilians but Israel says at least a third are fighters. Israel says it has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza.