ISRAEL ASSASSINATES IRANIAN GENERALS, IRAN LAUNCHES FIRST-EVER LONG-RANGE REVENGE ATTACK DIRECTLY FROM IRAN , COMBAT IN SPACE

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This is a developing war report. Facts will be clarified as they become clearer. Check back for additional news.

Six months and more than 33,000 dead Palestinians later, Iran launched an unprecedented counter-attack on Israel with a barrage of missiles and drones fired directly from Iranian territory on Saturday night.

Hezbollah militia along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, and Houthi militia in Yemen, both joined in the attack by firing missiles and drones too.

Designated operation “True Promise,” the Iranian attack was aimed at military installations inside Israel and intended to “remind the aggressor Zionists that their crimes will not go unanswered, ” a statement published by the Government-controlled Fars News Service said on Sunday.

To minimize civilian casualties, Iran gave three-days’ advance notice. Israel and its allies had that much time to prepare their defense.

Israel shot down about 99% of the 360-or-so ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones fired at it, at the cost of up to $1.2 billion, Israel said.

Around 10 Iranian ballistic missiles, likely kheibar shekan with hypersonic, maneuverable warheads, penetrated Israel's multi-layer, anti-missile defense systems to strike its air force bases at Nevatim and Ramon.

The successful strike at Nevatim was first reported by The Free Lance Saturday night.

An intelligence-gathering Israeli nerve center at Jabal ash-Shaykh, in the occupied Golan Heights, on the Syrian border, was also hit, the Iranians said.

The Iranian missiles that hit Nevatim damaged a C-130 transport aircraft, a runway and storage facilities, an anonymous senior U.S. official told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on Sunday.

American-supplied F-35 stealth fighter-bombers are based at Nevatim. Those planes likely bombed the Iranian Consulate in Syria Apr. 1. The airstrike on a diplomatic installation protected by international law killed 2 Iranian generals, five officers and six others. Iran's Saturday night bombardment was payback. It's unlikely any planes were destroyed on the ground given the Iranian warning—they would likely airborne shooting down incoming drones.

Also based at Nevatim is Israel’s “Doomsday Plane.” The plane, call sign “Wing of Zion,” launched before the attack too. (Not known is whether Israel’s leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aboard, or whether the move was strictly precautionary to prevent the iconic plane from being destroyed or damaged on the ground like the C-130 was.)

Israel's neighbors, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan, closed off their airspace just before the attack. Israel and its allies jammed satellite-powered GPS in the area in an attempt to disrupt guidance systems in the in-coming missiles or any other potential military action.

Turkey reportedly denied the U.S. the right to fly missions over its territory—a significant fracture in the relationship of two NATO allies pledged by treaty to assist one another.

Bystander video in Iraq, Jordan and the occupied West Bank posted to social media began showing drones and missiles screaming overhead in flight—and people cheering in support.

Warplanes from Israel, the U.S., Great Britain, France and Jordan intercepted many of the incoming drones and cruise missiles, shooting them down with anti-aircraft missiles and machine guns. Jordan even opened its airspace to Israel, so it too could shoot down the incoming Iranian ordinance—over Jordan’s territory instead of Israel’s.

Israel claimed the Iranian attack did not cause any real damage.

"Only one little girl has been hurt," Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said at a news conference after the strikes, the New York Times reported.

The Israeli government also posted video to social media Sunday morning taunting Iran by claiming to show an F-35 landing at Nevatim after the Iranian attack. Independently obtained satellite imagery reportedly taken Sunday morning appears to show minor damage to one of the airbase’s runways.

The Israeli military uses propaganda and disinformation as a weapon of war—most if not all militaries do.

Israel's military also censors civilian news reporting. It will likely censor news about damage, especially to military targets. Israeli censorship extends beyond Israeli journalists to foreign news organizations operating inside Israel.

Notwithstanding Israeli censorship of news organizations, bystander video posted to social media showed several successful missile strikes inside Israel.

The most dramatic captured flaming missiles firing out of dark, low-hanging clouds—seconds apart and sometimes from different angles—then hitting ground targets less than a second later. The coordinated timing and arrival of missiles from different vectors suggests Iran possesses a sophisticated, technical capacity to wage effective and efficient missile warfare.

Other video featured almost ballet-like aerial duels in what looked like slow-motion. The flaming tails of Israeli interceptor missiles rising to hunt incoming enemy missiles. Pin-points of light swirling around each other high above in the black night sky. Blooms of exploding light when the interceptors found their targets. The roar of rockets and the booms of blasts, echoing through the ancient Judean Hills—Jibal Al-Khalil to Arabs.

Video from the occupied West Bank showed the end of the battle, flaming debris streaking down to earth. Thousands of Palestinians in one hilly neighborhood of multi-story residential buildings ran out onto their roofs to watch the extraordinary spectacle of destruction. As the last explosion faded, their celebrating shouts and cheers roared to life. A battle horn blew. Fog and gun-smoke from the missiles filled the air all around.

The Israeli military released video purporting to capture a battle in space: a joint Israel-American-made high-altitude Arrow 3 interceptor reportedly striking an Iranian ballistic missile just above Earth's upper atmosphere. 

As the battle unfolded, scores of American politicians pledged their support for Israel on social media. Most receive campaign cash from AIPAC, an Israeli political lobbying group.

Israel and Iran have waged a shadowy, clandestine war for years.

Israel has assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders. They’ve secretly bombed nuclear laboratories and military bases. They’ve hacked into Iranian computers, stolen military and technological secrets. Since the start of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza in response to Palestinian militia’s cross-border raid into Israel on Oct. 7, Israel has assassinated at least 18 Iranian military officers.

The U.S. also assassinated an Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani, with a drone strike in Iraq at the order of Pres. Donald Trump on Jan. 3, 2020. Gen. Soleimani led the Quds Force, the clandestine operations component of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Quds Force helps train and arm Hamas in the occupied territories, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations issued a statement on Saturday saying its attack was aimed at legitimate military targets inside Israel. It was “conducted on the strength of Article 51 of the UN Charter pertaining to legitimate defense.” Iran considered the matter “concluded.”

It also warned the United States: “STAY AWAY!”

The confirmed, successful Iranian missile strikes could trigger a regional war.

Israel calls its military-based strategy “deterrence.”

“You hit them back 10 times harder,” is how Foreign Policy news magazine very politely describes Israeli “deterrence.”

In raw terms, “deterrence” means Israel uses military force to destroy opponents instead of peacefully negotiating solutions with them. It means Israel does whatever Israel wants to do. It means if try to stop Israel, Israel will kill you—so don’t even try. That’s what “deterrence” means to Israel.

For example, the Palestinians.

"The main thing first of all is to strike them," Prime Minister Netanyahu—who has ruled Israel for 17 of the last 28 years—was captured on candid camera saying in 2001. "Not once but several times, so painfully that the price they pay is unbearable.”

After the Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack on Israel by Palestinian militia from the Gaza Strip, “re-establishing” Israeli “deterrence” means killing so many Palestinians—more than 34,000 and counting since that day alone—it looks like Israel is committing genocide, according to millions of ordinary people around the world and the United Nations.

Now, after Iran’s attack, will Israel respond as Israel has always responded? Why would Israel choose this time to try something different?

John Bolton, former Pres. Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor and former Pres. George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations, urged the United States and Israel to “re-establish deterrence in a major way,” Bolton told CNN on Sunday.

Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, warned in a statement posted to X on Sunday that his country’s fight with Iran was “not over yet.”

In Washington, D.C., Pres. Joe Biden told Prime Minister Netanyau on Sunday the United States would not join with Israeli in a retaliatory attack on Iran, according to CNN and the Wall Street Journal.

“We would not be a part of any response they do,“ an anonymous Biden administration official said.

Meanwhile back in the Gaza Strip, Israel continued its military offensive.

Israel killed at least another 43 Palestinians and wounded 62 more in the last 24 hours, Reuters reports. And in the West Bank, Israeli settlers armed with American assault rifles backed by the Israeli army and police went on a rampage. They attacked 10 Palestinian villages, burned houses, cars and killed at least one. A settler teen sheep-herd was found dead later, the Associated Press reports.

The dark day overshadowed a New York Times editorial calling for restrictions on the transfer of American-made weapons to Israel. The official editorial was a marked shift. The newspaper has been critical of Israel but was mostly supportive—subtly, sometimes even slickly so—of Israel’s war against Palestinian insurgents in the Gaza Strip.

Only time will tell whether the Times editorial was too little, too late to avert a far-larger war.

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