JERUSALEM, Israel – More tragedy from Iranian missile fire as reports indicate that the Iranian regime is degraded but still intact.
Attacks against Israel continued on Thursday after Hezbollah ramped up its missile and drone strikes and Iran launched five missiles at Israel overnight, killing one person, a foreign Thai worker in the center of the country, and hitting a Palestinian village near Hebron, killing at least three women in a beauty salon.
Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Effie Defrin calls the cluster missile attacks a war crime.
He declared, “We have air defense systems, and I can already say they are among the best in the world; this is proven. Unfortunately, the defense is not airtight. We use our systems to intercept these missiles. These cluster missiles are a war crime if this terrorist regime targets them at population centers. There is no difference from a regular missile except for its dispersion.”
In Lebanon, the IDF claims it eliminated more than 20 Hezbollah terrorists in the past 24 hours and struck dozens of Hezbollah military structures.
For the first time, Israel attacked Iran’s natural gas infrastructure in the south on Wednesday. President Trump said the U.S. knew nothing about the attack on the South Pars gas field.
Following the strike, Iranian President Masouz Pezeshkian warned the situation “could lead to consequences beyond control, the scope of which would engulf the entire world.”
Iran then attacked Qatar’s state-owned petroleum company in the Ras Laffan industrial city, causing fires and extensive damage to the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export facility. The Qataris called the attack “a direct threat to its national security and the stability of the region.”
In a post on social media, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry wrote, “The Iranian side continues its escalatory policies that are pushing the region toward the abyss and drawing in countries that are not parties to this crisis into the circle of conflict.”
Qatar reserved the right to respond and said it will “not hesitate to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty, security, and the safety of its citizens.”
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According to The Wall Street Journal, the United Arab Emirates and other Persians now view the Iranian regime as an existential threat. They are calling on the U.S. to permanently disable the Tehran regime before the U.S. finishes the war.
The U.A.E. has been the hardest-hit of the Gulf nations, with more than 2,000 drones and missiles launched against it in the last three weeks. During a meeting of Gulf Arab state foreign ministers, Saudi Arabia was attacked.
Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan condemned Iranian attacks against the Kingdom and neighboring states that are not directly involved in the current conflict with Iran.
He stated, “The targeting of Riyadh, while a number of diplomats are meeting, I cannot see as coincidental. And I think that’s the clearest signal of how Iran feels about diplomacy. It doesn’t believe in talking to its neighbors. It tries to pressure its neighbors. And what I can say categorically is that’s not going to work. The Kingdom is not going to succumb to pressure. And on the contrary, this pressure will backfire.”
In Washington, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told senators at a briefing that the Iranian regime appears to be intact but largely degraded. She also addressed the issue of Iran’s nuclear threat to the U.S. in response to a question from Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia).
“Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?” Ossoff asked.
Gabbard replied, “The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability.”
President Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday for the transfer of the bodies of six U.S. servicemen killed in a plane crash while supporting U.S. troops in the war against Iran.
