Jerusalem
CNN
–
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly immersed himself in the brilliance of Israel’s military success in Iran. The shocking attacks of the military coordinated with the Mossad spy agency struck nuclear facilities and accurately eliminated Iranian officials.
Over the next few days, Israel expanded its operations against Iran, declared air superiority and chased Tehran’s ballistic missile arsenal.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu cried at a government meeting that Israel has “has achieved a great victory in a campaign against the enemy that came to destroy us.” And for the first time in years, he received the popular support of the country behind him.
A study by the Israeli Institute of Democracy shows that 70% of the country support the decision to attack Iran, which Israel has long considered an existential threat. Among Jewish Israelis, the survey was even higher, the survey found.
However, hours after the ceasefire ended the conflict, Israel was forced to turn its attention to Gaza. Gaza is a much more difficult war to find the major strategic successes seen in Iran.
Instead, Gaza has long been a tough battle with Hamas, relying on guerrilla tactics to counter Israel’s military superiority.
Netanyahu was scheduled to meet with a small circle of Israeli officials on Thursday, and was scheduled to discuss strategies in Gaza amid internal government conflicts on how to proceed.
Israel appears to have emerged from a 12-day conflict with Iran as an uncontroversial military force in the Middle East, and was able to target its immunity across Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and now Iran. Dozens of Israeli fighters covered hundreds of miles of hostile airspace, and hundreds of Israeli fighters performed their mission against Iran to attack targets ranging from nuclear facilities to ballistic missile launchers to regime symbols. The only limitation of Israel’s operations from an military standpoint was its own weapons stockpile.
But if the battle showed Israel’s military power, it also revealed its limits. According to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), the country’s proud aerial defense system intercepted the majority of Iran’s ballistic missiles. However, missiles that passed the arrows and David’s sling defense system, designed to protect them from longer-range projectiles than the well-known iron domes, unleashed unprecedented damage to some of Israel’s biggest cities, including Haifa and Tel Aviv.
In the final hours before the ceasefire took effect Tuesday, one ballistic missile struck a residential building in Beershever, killing at least four people. The blast forces ripped the surrounding buildings and blasted concrete walls. The first IDF investigation has been found where at least three of the murdered people were found inside a safe room.
Since former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched dozens of SCUD missiles in Israel during the Gulf War in 1990, many missiles have not been raining across the country from hundreds of miles away.
For almost two weeks, millions of Israel rushed to the shelter with minutes of warning. People without shelter in their homes ran to the nearest public shelter. However, Iranian ballistic missiles quickly proved to be far more powerful than their Iraqi counterparts 30 years ago. Despite the barrage shrinking in size after the first few days, the high percentage of missiles penetrated Israel’s defenses, often with devastating consequences, killing a total of 28 people and injuring hundreds more.
Yogev Kudady was one of the last Iranian salvos before the ceasefire crashed into about 150 feet from his home when he was in a bomb shelter in Beer Sheva with his wife and four young children.
“Everything is broken, the roof falls, I look back at my kids and my wife, I can’t be speechless,” Kudadi told CNN. “Until now, I’m shocked that I’ve never done it in my life. Never, never, never, never.”
The Israeli tax authorities’ compensation agency estimated it would cost more than $1.3 billion to repair the damage caused during the only 12-day dispute. At Knesset’s Finance Committee meeting on Monday, Amir Dahan, head of the Compensation Bureau, said the number could rise even further. He said about 25 buildings need to be demolished.
In contrast, the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 and the 20-month war in Gaza caused damages of around $730 million, Dahan said he highlighted the magnitude of damage caused by Iran’s ballistic missiles in such a short time.
For years, Israel has been used to the shields of the short-range air defense system of iron domes. This intercepted thousands of rockets from Gaza with the Sterling record. However, the threat of these rockets was largely confined to communities around Gaza. Iran’s ballistic missile barrages have caused red warning sirens across the country.
“I’ve been through a lot of wars here, and nothing compares to this,” said Diana Blitz, a resident of Beer Sheva, whose childhood home was damaged during Tuesday’s missile strike. “The ceiling fell, all the windows shattered in every room. Our front door was a strong metal door and literally bent it. The lock was broken. Everything was broken.”
While the conflict with Tehran was raging, the fate of Gaza and the hostages Hamas held there effectively disappeared from the news. Instead of counting the days of the war in Gaza, which swept past 600 last month, Israel’s major news channels quickly switched to count the days of the war against Iran.
But the strip conflict continued, especially as massive protests against the war that crammed the streets of Tel Aviv each week were banned under emergency regulations, which shifted the attention of Israelis elsewhere.
Tuesday – A ceasefire between Israel and Iran took effect hours after US President Donald Trump announced it. The Israeli soldier was killed in Khan Eunice by an improvised explosive device attached to the armored member’s carrier. In recent months, it marked one of Israel’s most fatal incidents.
“There was a need for someone like Trump to come forward and say, ‘We’d get the hostages back, stop everything, and go back to normal,'” ultra-Orthodox MP Moshe Gafni said on Thursday in a rare show of opposition from within the government.
If the IDF operation in Iran flaunted the military’s ability to attack with accuracy and intelligence, the ongoing war in Gaza filled the country with the opposite type of conflict. In Israel, war is characterized by a small progress and a growing public outrage, but internationally it denies the unbalanced number of killed civilians.
A late May poll on Israeli Channel 12 News found that 55% of those surveyed believe Netanyahu is continuing the war to maintain power. Other studies have repeatedly shown that over 60% of the country support a contract to release hostages, even when it means ending the war.
“It’s time to show courage and say it loudly and clearly. Return the hostages and stop the fight. That’s the right solution. That’s the only way to complete Israeli victory,” the Hostages and Missing Family Forum said on Wednesday.
Qatar, who acted as a mediator during negotiations between Israel and Hamas, said the Iranian ceasefire had created “momentum” to resume Gaza speeches. Foreign Ministry spokesman Al Ansari Majed said the country had been in touch with “all aspects” to try to resume consultations.
“There are a lot of details that you can’t discuss about the transaction right now, but I can say that it’s the same parameters as keeping you in and out of the talk,” he told CNN. He has been speaking about these parameters for months, hindering negotiators who are struggling to find ways to make progress.
Netanyahu now stands on a stronger political foundation. He survived an attempt to overthrow the government two weeks ago, and even his critics gave him credit for a successful campaign against Iran. At this important inflection point he faces his own decision: whether to take the sparkling success of one conflict and use it to end the brutal reality of another conflict.