Cheers in the Iranian parliament: MPs celebrate the launch of the drones towards Israel.
Image: Imago
More than 300 drones and missiles, hours of shelling, but hardly any damage: Iran wanted to send a signal and at the same time avoid escalation. Now Washington is trying to moderate Israel's response.
ARarely would there have been a rocket alarm in so many places in Israel at the same time. And the images that were shared on social networks on Sunday night were also extraordinary. In Jerusalem, for example, numerous shining objects could be seen that moved across the sky almost like shooting stars: a video showed them above the Dome of the Rock on the Al-Aqsa Plateau. Such recordings also came from Hebron in Palestine and Amman in Jordan. Low-flying military aircraft could be heard in Tel Aviv during the night.
The swarm of drones and missiles that headed toward Israel from Iran last night was an unprecedented escalation of the conflict between the two countries. For the first time, the Islamic Republic attacked its regional arch-enemy directly. According to Iranian interpretation, Israel crossed a red line with an air strike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus about two weeks ago. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said he viewed this as an attack on Iranian territory. The attack also hit a senior Revolutionary Guard commander who was more important than the officers who had been killed in previous air strikes.