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Report: Iran preparing for revenge missile attack on northern Israel

Israeli security officials believe Iran is considering a strike on Israel from Syria.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Israeli government officials suspect that the Iranians, furious over the recent attacks on its Syrian weapons depot and drone unit, among other Iranian targets allegedly hit by Israel over the past month in that war-torn country, may be preparing an attack on northern Israel in the near future, Channel 2 news reported Sunday evening.

The method most likely to be used, according to security personnel, is ground-to-ground missiles that Iran has stationed in Syria, aimed at northern Israeli targets. According to the report, however, the security experts think that Iran would seek to limit its strike to military targets – just as Israel allegedly did in Syria – so as not to provoke a wider conflict.

Iran is also likely to use proxies such as Hezbollah or other pro-Iranian militias, of which there are an abundance in Syria, to launch the rockets, in an attempt at giving the Islamic government “plausible deniability” over who should be considered the guilty party in the attack.

On Thursday, Major General (ret.) Amos Yadlin, former chief of IDF Military Intelligence and current executive director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), warned on Radio Haifa that Israel must be prepared for an Iranian reaction to the attacks it has suffered in Syria. He even suggested they might see last week’s missile strike on an arms depot that caused a massive explosion in Syria and reportedly several Iranian deaths – attributed to Israel but not commented on by any government officials – as a pre-emptive strike by Israel to thwart any possible plan of theirs.

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At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also referred to the Iranian threat. He gave a review of the advanced weaponry that Iran has brought into Syria, adding that Israel was ready for a confrontation. It would be better to have it ”now rather than later,” he said, cautioning, “We do not want escalation, but we are prepared for any scenario.”