Attempted Drone Attack on Golan
Hezbollah supporters listen to leader Hassan Nasrallah deliver a speech in May during a gathering to commemorate the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) International Day in Beirut. (Credit: Nabil Mounzer, EPA-EFE, Shutterstock).
Over the past month, the conflict between Israel and Iran has been steadily escalating. It began on July 19th, when a base garrisoned by the Iraqi chapter of Hezbollah - a militia patronized by Iran and sheltered by the Iraqi government - was bombed in an unclaimed military strike near Baghdad. Then another strike inside Iraq targeted another Iranian-sponsored militia on July 30th, followed by yet another airstrike on a warehouse south of Baghdad. The following days revealed that these targets in Iraq were part of a clandestine network of sites being used by Iran and its proxies to transport weapons and military hardware across the Middle East to Syria and Lebanon, a direct threat to Israel's security. Although there has been no official claim of responsibility for the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently stated in press conferences and on social media platforms that Israel will defend itself against threats posed by Iran, however and wherever necessary.
In apparent retaliation for the Iraqi strikes, several Hezbollah operatives were dispatched to southwestern Syria last week. Their mission was to remotely pilot explosives-laden drones across the border into Israel and crash them into Israeli targets in the Golan Heights. Unbeknownst to the attackers, the Israeli Defense Forces were monitoring their movements and successfully disabled the drones before they could be launched, after which the Israeli military conducted an airstrike against the Hezbollah operatives near Damascus. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah confirmed that the group suffered casualties and vowed revenge, leading the Israeli military to heighten its alert level along its northern frontier. Israeli intelligence sources later publicly identified two of those Hezbollah operatives killed in the strikes as having traveled to Iran to receive training in drone operation, and that their foiled attack was ordered, funded and facilitated personally by the leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard himself, Qasam Soleimani. Then on Sunday, Israeli jets struck the positions of an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian group based in Southern Lebanon, and another unclaimed airstrike inside Iraq destroyed a vehicle carrying weapons near the border of Syria, killing the commander of another Iranian-sponsored militia. The Iraqi government blamed the strike on Israel, claiming that Israeli drones were flying from Kurdish bases in Eastern Syria in a coordinated effort with Saudi Arabia.
Israeli conflict with Iranian-sponsored Hamas in the Gaza Strip has spiked recently as well. In the third night of rocket fire in the past week, Hamas and its allies targeted a crowded outdoor music festival in Southern Israel. The incoming rockets were intercepted and the Israeli military responded with airstrikes on Hamas positions inside Gaza.
The fact that the Israeli military has conducted airstrikes in three countries and the Gaza Strip in just four days is an indication of the multi-lateral threat that it faces. Tensions along both its northern and southern borders are higher than they have been in years. There is a coordinated and concerted effort on the part of Israel’s enemies to press on the Jewish State from every side. The prelude to an undeclared war is now being fought on multiple fronts, a challenge that Israel has not faced since the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
Apart from sovereign intervention, this present course of escalation seems certain. From our base of operations inside Israel, we would ask our partners around the world to intercede with us for 1) The hidden plans of the enemy to come to light and be thwarted 2) The Lord to restrain the hostility of those who plot violence and 3) A divine hedge of protection around the nation of Israel and all those across the Middle East who live under the threat of the Iranian regime, including the Iranian people themselves.
In the meantime, we are not going anywhere. We will continue to live and serve the Lord in this Land for the sake of Israel and her neighbors.
Shalom from Israel.
Sources: https://www.jpost.com/…/Everything-you-need-to-know-about-a…
https://www.newsweek.com/israel-attack-four-countries-bombi…
https://www.timesofisrael.com/at-least-6-said-killed-in-dr…/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/…/exclusive-israeli-strikes-i…