Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses Israel’s Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv, Israel on December 17, 2023.
Menahem Kahanna | Reuters
TEL AVIV — Israel is bracing for a possible multi-day attack by Iran and its ally Hezbollah after killing two senior militant leaders Last week, an Israeli official told NBC News.
The official said Israel feared waves of rockets and drones could be fired for several days in response to the killing of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.
“They’re just going to try to wear us down,” the official said.
This tension marks another escalation in the Middle East during 10 months of the Israel-Hamas warcharacterized by a series of heightened pressure points amid concerns that a overall regional conflict is on the horizon.
Israel killed Shukr in an attack in the southern suburbs of Beirut last Tuesday. The strike in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood also killed three civilians, including two children, and injured 74 others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The Israeli military blamed Shukr for an attack in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 children, saying there is no price too high for the “blood of our people.” Hezbollah denied responsibility for that attack.
Hours later, news broke that Haniyeh had been killed in Tehran in the early hours of Wednesday. Haniyeh was in Iran to attend the inauguration of the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the day after Haniya was killed. The president has said publicly that the killing did not help US efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza. The call was “tense,” according to the Israeli official.
“There is strong US pressure to achieve a ceasefire,” the official said. “Biden wants it to happen during his term.”
Israeli negotiators were in Cairo on Saturday to continue negotiations but left without significant progress, the official said.
Iranian officials have been sworn in for retaliation against Israel, although the country has not publicly claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s murder. The Hezbollah leader also told his followers that Israel will suffer for the attacks.
When Iran attacked Israel on April 13 — in response to the bombing of its embassy in Damascus — launched 300 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in tight volleys so that the various missiles reached Israel at the same time. The vast majority were intercepted by Israeli and US forces, while Hezbollah was largely left out of the fray.
This time, the Israeli official said the attacks could take place over several days, with Hezbollah attacking Israel from the north while Iran’s longer-range weapons are fired from the east.
It would be the second time Iran has directly attacked Israel this year, a rare front-on attack for a regime often believed to be acting through its proxies in the region.
Diplomats are working to avoid a larger regional war in the Middle East since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in which 1,200 were killed and about 250 kidnapped. However, these efforts have not stopped Hezbollah and the Houthis, two Iranian-backed militias, from escalating attacks on Israel in what its groups describe as support for the Palestinian cause .
Meanwhile the The death toll in Gaza continues to risewith the latest estimates by officials in the enclave approaching 40,000 dead.
Family members of the hostages who remain in Gaza pleaded with Netanyahu to secure a deal that would see their loved ones return home. Some of the hostages’ family members were was held last month for protesting the prime minister’s address to Congress during a visit to the US
Raf Sanchez reported from Tel Aviv. Doha Madani Report from New York.
