Israelis are preparing for a response to the killings this week of the political head of Hamas and a commander of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, Israel-based analysts told Al Jazeera.
Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, who was a key figure in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, were killed within hours of each other in Beirut and Tehran, respectively. Israel did not comment on Haniyeh’s death, but claimed Shukr’s. Israeli military planners have said Shukr was behind a recent attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children, although Hezbollah has denied responsibility.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei promised “severe punishment” to Israel in retaliation for the murder of Haniyeh in the Iranian capital. Iran’s leaders promised “tough revenge”. As thousands of people in Tehran took to the streets to mourn the Hamas leader, major Iranian newspapers covered the event through themes of revenge, mourning and defiance.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said a response is “inevitable.”
Anticipating such a response, Israel military said it was on “maximum alert”, according to Israeli media. They reported that Israel was trying to finalize an international coalition to help deflect an attack.
In April, after Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Israel said that, with the help of the United States, the United Kingdom and France, it intercepted missiles and drones launched by Iran in an unprecedented attack.
‘General feeling of anxiety’
Middle East Eye video footage shot in the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel, showed a divided public climate. One woman said she “didn’t feel safe” and canceled her plans Wednesday morning after Haniyeh’s murder. Another woman told the channel that people were “happy” about the murder, but knew it could cause a bigger war.
“People are tense, of course,” said Ori Goldberg, a Tel Aviv-based expert on Israeli politics. “There are fewer people on the streets, there is a general feeling of anxiety, but it is nowhere near as hysterical as in October when people were convinced that Hezbollah was going to invade from the north,” he said, describing the days after the attack. of October. 7 attacks led by Hamas in southern Israel. It was a fear that didn’t happen.
The killings restored some level of public trust in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the military after the Oct. 7 attacks, widely seen by experts and the Israeli public as an intelligence failure, said Israeli researcher and former aide by Netanyahu, Mitchell Barak.
However, Barak added: “I don’t think anyone knows what’s going to happen now. I think everyone is trying to figure out what the answer will be or where it will come from.”
Public satisfaction and dissociation
“Apart from the timing, the two assassinations have nothing in common,” said Alon Pinkas, an Israeli diplomat and columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Pinkas said Shukr’s murder was a response to the Golan attack. In contrast, the assassination of Haniyeh, who was killed just hours after attending the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, could elicit a stronger response.
“Of course, Haniyeh’s murder could have just been opportunistic and born out of a need for revenge and a love of drama and fireworks,” Pinkas said, before adding that he thought the idea of Haniyeh’s political or military leadership Israel did not consider the consequences of the assassination unlikely. “If the reports we’re seeing in The New York Times are right, suggesting that a bomb was placed in their accommodation months earlier, which makes the timing and location deliberate, leaving Iran no choice but to escalate, ending any chance of a hostage deal or ceasefire. ”
Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran appeared to be aimed at undermining Iran, Pinkas said. But the choice of target is less clear, he said.
Unlike Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Haniyeh moved to Qatar in 2019 and was considered a relatively moderate political figure within Hamas and one of the best candidates to end the conflict and secure the release of captives. detained in Gaza since October. 7, one of the main concerns of the Israeli public.
However, Goldberg said, his death still evoked some public satisfaction.
“It sounds strange, I know, but there is a level of public disassociation at work here,” Goldberg said. “Given the environment, the public has no problem separating the call for the return of the hostages and celebrating the murder of the man with whom Israel was in talks to achieve this,” he said, referring to how Israelis are traumatized by the events. of October 7th. .
Netanyahu’s critics, both within Israel and abroad, have been quick to suggest that the high-profile nature of Haniyeh’s assassination may be a ploy by the embattled prime minister to prolong and escalate the conflict to avoid the collapse of his fragile coalition government and the holding of elections.
For now, on the streets of Tel Aviv, “there is anxiety,” Goldberg said. “But there is also a feeling of resignation. There is this feeling that this is Israel’s destiny. People believe that Israel will always have to defend itself and, with that, comes this idea of total impunity. For many, this is the way it is.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
