By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – When Israel responds to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile salvos over the weekend, its aim will be to send a message of deterrence to Tehran while drawing a line under the series of hostilities, a government official said a senior Israeli lawmaker on Tuesday.
Israeli considerations in planning a counterattack include wariness of Western powers, the risk to air crews of any sorties against Iran, and the need to remain focused on the long-running Gaza offensive. for more than six months. Yuli Edelstein said.
“We will have to react. The Iranians will know that we reacted. And I sincerely hope that this will teach them that you cannot attack a sovereign country just because you find it feasible,” declared Edelstein, president of the Parliament of the Foreign Affairs of the Knesset. Committee on Business and Defense.
But he added: “I sincerely hope that they will understand that it is not in their interest to continue this kind of exchange of blows. We are not interested in a full-scale war. We are not, as I said, in the matter of revenge.
Israeli officials say response to Iranian attacks will be approved by PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet. Edelstein, a former minister in Netanyahu’s Likud party whose role now involves reviewing government decisions, did not say how briefed he was on the operational plans.
The launch of hundreds of unmanned kamikaze planes, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles Saturday evening marked Iran’s first direct attack on Israel. Most threats were neutralized by Israeli, American, British, French and Jordanian forces.
Iran called the barrage a retaliation for an Israeli strike that destroyed a building on its embassy compound in Damascus and killed two of its generals and several other officers.
Israel – which has not taken responsibility for the April 1 attack – says it cannot allow an open front with the Iranians, especially as it fights Tehran-backed militias in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
A Channel 13 poll found that 29 percent of Israelis support an immediate attack on Iran, 37 percent support a later attack and 25 percent oppose it.
The Iranian barrage injured a young Israeli woman and caused limited damage to an air base. When asked whether the Israeli response would seek to avoid greater casualties, Edelstein responded that the targets were still under discussion but that “we always take into account international standards” and that Israel did not intentionally target targets. civilians.
Israel used warplanes and high-altitude interceptors to repel Iranian salvos, which Edelstein said cost “a huge amount of money” that was worth investing in self-defense.
One of his commission’s tasks was to ensure that Israel had a steady supply of interceptor missiles. He said rumors that Israel was running out of interceptors were false.
(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Peter Graff)
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