Iran has launched hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles. Iran says with this attack, it considers the matter concluded, and any Israeli response will be met with severe retaliation. Iran also tells the US to stay away and that if any regional nation is used to launch the Israeli response, they will be targeted, too.
Israel claims to have intercepted 99% of Iranian response, and the IDF says citizens no longer need to stay near shelters, suggesting the Iranian attack is over. They were helped by UK and US fighter jets in other countries. Israel says it will give “an unprecedented response”. Israel has told the US what their response will consist of.
UN Security Council to meet at 4 PM Eastern Time, Sunday. As of now, it seems all drones and missiles have been intercepted/hit their targets. The impact on Israel has been extremely minor, with minimal casualties and zero fatalities. A military target seems to have been hit. Now we wait for Israel's response.
Hopefully, that too is similarly limited and the situation calms down.
OG Post:
Per randos on Twitter, drones will reach in a few hours. It's not missiles or anything more substantial...yet (and hopefully never).
Edit - Hopefully, this is the only response. I can't stand the people cheering for this or wanting further escalation. Millions will die. I have no idea what Israel will do in retaliation for this retaliation. I don't even have any hopes they'll not respond. I just don't know.
So, was the attack a failure?
Depends on what Iran's goal was.
If it was causing destruction and death, then a failure.
If it was to show Isn'trael that Iran has the capability to launch a coordinated drone/missile barrage deep into their territory and accurately hit specific targets (in this case military targets), no matter the Iron Dome or other missile/drone interceptors, then it was a success.
On another note, it probably cost Isn'trael a whole lot more money to attempt to intercept the drone/missiles than it cost Iran in drones/missiles.
Would you agree with the notion that Iran's attack was designed to be repelled? That's what I've seen on liberal media and r*ddit. They also believe that it was a showcase attack to save face.
Designed to be repelled? Not how I would phrase it.
Measured response.
There's probably a bunch of "racist against middle-easterners" types who were expecting either nothing but angry words from Iran, small scale terror attacks against civilians/soft targets or even a massive military strike against civilian targets. These folks didn't get what they wanted. What they watched was a massive coordinated bombardment launched with a high degree of accuracy from 2,300km away that required pretty much ALL of Israel's air defenses to be engaged, to the point that other western forces also had to send up interceptors to help them.
That's a good assessment and what I've come to believe as well.
There were some hits, and stopping what they did it cost Israel over a billion dollars worth of air defense missiles
Only the west is bloodthirsty enough to measure military success via number of civilians killed. Iran seems to have met their goals of destroying Israeli military infrastructure, wasting Israeli resources, and probing Israel's defences for weak points in case Israel tries to escalate things.
As an expert in nothing related with access to a keyboard I have an opinion. I've talked over and over about how, in self-defense, the harm you do to your opponent is meaningless (up until someone else makes it your problem like getting arrested or their friends getting upset). Your only win condition is to get back home/get on with your life. If someone is ravenous towards you, de-escalation failed, and you can't remove yourself from the situation, then frustrating their ability to attack you is how you win. Frustration might mean taking their weapon, breaking their hand that wields it, taking their consciousness, or making sure their consciousness doesn't come back.
I'm that sense, if 0 people died but Israel can't kill anymore Iranians, then Iran, I hope, can find solace in mourning those who died in the attack (as opposed to escalating US style which sounds good but doesn't work). If Iran tried to be a hero and rescue Palestine, the journalists, and aid workers then the whole conflict becomes interesting. Not like "yippee, we're playing dodgeball" interesting but the kind of thing where propaganda starts flying as fast as the bullets.