The Gaza war could escalate into a conflagration. Now an Iranian general has been killed in a suspected Israeli air strike in Syria. Harsh threats are made.
The death of an Iranian general in a suspected Israeli airstrike in Syria raises tensions in the Middle East. Iranian Defense Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik threatened Israel on Tuesday, according to the Tasnim news agency: “The Zionists (Israel) must prepare for the consequences of their crime… and they will be painful.”
Senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), General Sejed-Rasi Mousavi, was killed on Monday in an explosion in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus.
According to information from the New York Times, Mousavi is said to have helped oversee the delivery of rockets and other weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
The only thing the Israeli military said about the general’s death was that it did not comment on foreign media reports. The New York Times wrote that Israeli officials acknowledged that they were preparing for possible Iranian retaliation.
The Revolutionary Guards swore revenge on Israel. “The Zionist regime (Israel) will definitely pay for the martyrdom of our long-time military adviser,” the IRGC web portal said.
Israel issued a strong warning to Iran-aligned Hezbollah in Lebanon. “We are hitting Hezbollah very hard – it has lost around 150 fighters, its infrastructure is damaged, it has been pushed back far from the border and the (Israeli) Air Force is flying unhindered over Lebanon,” said Israel’s Defense Minister Joav Gallant.
Why is Israel attacking targets in Syria?
Israel is attacking targets in Syria to prevent Iran from expanding its military influence there with the help of militias. Both Lebanon and Syria are neighboring countries of Israel. Israel feels threatened by the rocket arsenals of Hezbollah and other militias.
For Tehran, Syria is part of the so-called “Axis of Resistance” in the fight against Israel, alongside the Shiite organization Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamist Hamas. According to US intelligence, Iran also supports the Houthi rebels in Yemen and militias in Iraq.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th, there has been almost daily exchanges of fire between Israel’s army and Hezbollah in the Israeli-Lebanese border region. It is the worst escalation since the second Lebanon war in 2006.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
