Photo: AFP
An Israeli airstrike in Tehran early Wednesday took out one of the top leaders of Hamas. The airstrike that killed Ismail Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards came as he was in the Iranian capital to witness the inauguration of Iran’s new president, though Israel has not claimed responsibility for the pinpoint attack on Haniyeh’s home. Just hours earlier, Israel conducted a similar strike in Beirut against a Hezbollah official, which came mere days after the terror group struck a soccer field in northern Israel, killing twelve Israeli children. ABC News correspondent Jordana Miller appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to explain what the two strikes mean in the big picture of the highly volatile Middle East.
“Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini, is threatening to avenge the attack that he is blaming on Israel,” Miller told Riedel and Larry Mendte, sitting in for Berman. “He says he’s going to carry out a, quote, “severe punishment”. Remember, Israel has not claimed that targeted assassination that took t the top leader of Hamas, but it has all the hallmarks of a precise Israeli hit… and as you can imagine, everyone here is very on edge.”
Miller says Israel is now bracing itself for retaliation, which it expects will probably come soon. “From the Israeli perspective… they were very precise, pinpointed attacks on legitimate military targets. Both the United States and Israel consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization backed by Iran, and Hamas, as well. Thankfully, we didn’t see mass civilian casualties in either strike… so, given that they kept those strikes to military targets, Israel does expect that there will be a strike, let’s say, on Tel Aviv, because Israel did go to Beirut, and that was kind of the red line. So, Israel feels it is prepared for that. Analysts think that is likely to come in the coming days, but will it be 100 missiles on Tel Aviv, no.”
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