Hezbollah and Israel had a no-brain attack on a military base near the border of Isfahan
Hezbollah and Israel engaged in occasional fire over the northern Israel border. In the past several months, Houthis, backed by Iran, have been trying to get at international vessels in the Red Sea. The group’s leaders claim to be targeting ships that are connected to Israel in response to the invasion of Gaza.
The region has been on the edge of wider conflict since Hamas attacked Israel Oct. 7, which Israel says killed 1,200 people, and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, which has killed more than 30,000 people according to Gaza health officials.
Iranian officials told The New York Times that a strike had hit a military air base near Isfahan. But Brig. General Siavash Mihandoust, the most senior military official in Isfahan, told state television that any explosions heard there on Friday were not caused by Israeli strikes, attributing them to air defense systems shooting down “flying objects.”
The U.S. and others urged Israel to refrain from a military strike in order to avoid a regional conflict.
Iran state news agency IRNA reported a military official in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, Brigadier General Mihan Dost, as saying loud sounds heard east of the city were the sound of air defenses intercepting what he called a “suspicious target” and that no damage was reported in the area.
The Israeli strike on a military base near the Iranian city of Isfahan was part of a cycle of retaliation that has alarmed world leaders, but it produced a largely muted response from both on Friday.
In one video that was widely shared online Friday, a girl throws a paper airplane into an apartment building and compares it to the Israeli strike, giggling as it hits the concrete structure.
Social media users in Iran, including some connected to the country’s military, mocked the Israeli strike as a puny response to the roughly 300 missiles and drones that Iran launched at Israel last weekend.
State television in Iran said military and nuclear facilities in Isfahan were safe and broadcast footage of the city looking calm in the spring light. One newsreader there described the attack as “not a big deal.”
Dana Weiss, a diplomatic affairs analyst for Israel’s Channel 12, says Israel can do elegant military maneuvers that are not loud or damaging but that deliver the message it wants. “And that is what we have seen them do.”
