Israeli army in frenzy over fears of Iranian response
Israel said it is bolstering air defenses due to fears of Iranian missile strikes on its territory
The Israeli army canceled leave for all combat troops on 4 April in anticipation of an Iranian response to the brutal strike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus days earlier.
“In accordance with the assessment of the situation … it was decided to temporarily delay the leave of the fighting units,” the Israeli army said in a statement on Thursday.
“The IDF is at war and the issue of the deployment of forces is constantly reviewed as needed,” it added.
The army said a day earlier that it was boosting its air defenses and had called up reservist troops to confront a potential Iranian response to Israel’s destruction of Iran’s consulate in Syria and its killing of several officials.
Hebrew-language outlet Channel 12 speculated on Wednesday that Tehran could respond to the consulate attack by launching missiles from its territory – as opposed to using its ‘proxies’ in Lebanon, Iraq, or Yemen, referring to Hezbollah, the Iraqi resistance, and Yemen’s Ansarallah.
“I won’t be surprised if Iran fires directly at Israel,” former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told Channel 12.
Several Iranian officials, including President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have vowed a response to Israel.
The airstrike completely leveled the Iranian consulate in Syria's capital, Damascus, killing several, including a senior officer in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi.
IRGC officer Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Hajj Rahimi was also killed in the attack, alongside five other advisors and officials.
Israel “will be slapped” for the Damascus airstrike, Khamenei said on 3 April.
Iran “has exercised considerable restraint [in the past], but it is imperative to acknowledge there are limits to such forbearance,” Tehran’s ambassador to the UN, Zahra Ershadi, said at the Security Council on 2 April.
She added, “This crime bluntly breaches the fundamental principle of diplomatic and consular immunity and flagrantly violated the 1961 Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents of 1973.”