[Jimbuna]

In reversal, Israel said to now believe Iran plans to attack in next few days

Several reports Sunday evening indicated that Israel was expecting a major Iranian attack to be launched within days, though the military sought to downplay this by stressing that instructions to civilians were unchanged.

The reports marked a reversal of the previous prevailing assumption, which had been that the Islamic Republic — under heavy international pressure — had given up its initial intention to launch an imminent large-scale attack in response to the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, which Israel has not confirmed or denied carrying out.

Instead, Iran had been expected to leave the response to Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group, whose top military commander Fuad Shukr was killed by Israel in an airstrike in Beirut several hours before Haniyeh’s assassination. Israel blamed Shukr for being behind many attacks on civilians, including a rocket strike last month that killed 12 children in a soccer field in Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.

But the Axios news site, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the details, reported Sunday that Israel’s current assessment was that Iran would launch a direct attack on the country within days, possibly before renewed ceasefire-hostage deal talks are held on Thursday.

The report said that the issue was divisive within Iran. President Masoud Pezeshkian wants to avoid a harsh response, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps wants to launch a larger attack than it did on April 13-14, when hundreds of drones and missile were launched in Iran’s first-ever direct attack on Israel.

Almost all the projectiles and UAVs were intercepted during that attack.

One of the sources cited in the report said the situation was “still fluid” due to the disagreements.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-rev...next-few-days/