As tensions escalate with Iran, Israeli authorities are interfering with GPS systems to thwart missiles and drones.
There were thirteen casualties, including a senior general, in an attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria on Monday; the attack was generally suspected to have been carried out by Israel. In response, Iran has threatened retaliation. Soldiers operating with combat units will no longer be allowed any leave, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Friday, Quds Day or Jerusalem Day, the penultimate Friday in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is believed by Israeli officials to represent the near arrival of an Iranian reaction.
Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed force, have been engaging in almost daily gunfire over the last six months, and this has already interrupted GPS in northern Israel, close to the border with Lebanon. Despite calls for calm, the Israeli Defense Forces have remained silent in response to the bombing of an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria’s capital, Damascus.
Israel has admitted in the past that it has attacked locations in Syria that it believes are associated with Iran or its supported militias. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel is acting against Iran and its proxies, defensively and offensively, and is adhering to the basic concept of retaliation against those who hurt or attempt to damage Israel.
Following Monday’s murder of seven charity workers in Gaza, Israel has been subject to mounting international criticism. The leader of the organization whose employees seemed to have been slain in drone attacks said that they had been systematically, car by car, targeted. As a result of the killings, numerous humanitarian organizations have halted shipments into northern Gaza out of concern for the safety of their employees. The event was attributed to misidentification, which IDF Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi characterized as a “grave mistake.” ‘
Halevi extended an apology for the incident.
US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the death of charity workers were “unacceptable.”
