Israeli military officials have once again warned the Islamic Republic of Iran against attacking the Jewish state, stressing that “Israel will respond powerfully to any Iranian operation from within Syria.” With the wide-ranging assessment in Jerusalem in which Iran is planning to attack Israel from Syria in response to the bombing of a Syrian T4 air-force base that was ascribed to Israel by Moscow, Tehran and Damascus; the Israeli military has raised its state of alert – to the highest level in recent years. Furthermore, the IDF released photographs and intelligence material that points to Iran growing military entrenchment in Syria. The photographs showed, what the IDF said were Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s ‘Quds Force’ receiving weapons of three kinds, including Surface-to-surface missiles, equipment for its unmanned aerial vehicles unit, as well as air defense systems. The decision by the Israeli military to release its intelligence data aims at showing the Islamic Republic’s leadership in Tehran that Israel is aware of its actions and, perhaps by so doing, to scale back the Iranian operation. Nevertheless, Israeli officials believe that an Iranian attack is imminent and will probably take the form by means of either an air strike or rocket fire.
Qassem Soleimani, who commands the Iranian Quds Force and Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria, visited the T4 airbase, shortly after Israel allegedly bombed the installation. According to a Lebanese news-website Ad-Diyar, Soleimani spoke with the soldiers and commanders on the base and briefed them on the possibility of additional attacks.
Because of the heightened tensions on Israel’s northern frontier, IDF officials decided to cancel plans to have Israeli Air Force fighter-jets take part in the international Red Flag exercise in Alaska, which is led by the US Air Force. Israeli Air Force pilots routinely participate in that exercise, in which pilots’ train for flying in difficult weather conditions. IDF officials explained that given the situation with Iran and the heightened state of alert, a decision was made not to take any risks by removing fighter planes and combat pilots from Israel. The state of alert, which is one of the highest it has been in recent years, will remain unchanged in the next several days, over the course of the Independence Day holiday.
The IDF is also preparing itself for violent clashes along the Gaza Strip’s border this weekend, as thousands of Palestinian demonstrators are expected to clash with Israeli security forces along the border’s security fence.