Hours of great tension in the Middle East over rumors of imminent attacks by Iran in response to Israel for beheading the leadership of Hamas.
As part of the Pentagon’s efforts to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its allies and to safeguard U.S. troops, a dozen F/A-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt are headed to a military base in the Middle East.
The fighter jets and an E-2D Hawkeye surveillance plane took off from the aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, a U.S. official said, according to AP on its website. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered an increased military presence in the region, as officials are concerned about escalating violence in the Middle East.
“It is up to Hamas leader Sinwar to decide on a truce in Gaza,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement to reporters in Annapolis, Maryland. Iran and Israel must “avoid escalating the conflict” in the Middle East, he added. “We will not tolerate attacks against U.S. troops in the Middle East,” Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said.
“The appointment of the ultra-terrorist Yahya Sinwar as the new leader of Hamas, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, is yet another compelling reason to quickly eliminate him and wipe this vile organization off the face of the earth,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in X.
Yahya Sinwar has been proclaimed political head of Hamas and therefore successor to Ismail Haniyeh, killed six days ago in Tehran in a guesthouse of the Pasdaran. A murder that has unleashed Tehran’s desire for revenge expected in the next few hours. “The Islamic resistance movement Hamas announces the appointment of leader Yahya Sinwar as head of the political office of the movement”.
And again: “A strong message of resistance” sent to Israel ten months after the start of the war in Gaza. “A strong message to the occupier that Hamas is continuing on the path of resistance,” said an official of the Palestinian faction.
A decision that shuffles the cards and shows that the one in charge inside Hamas is him, “the terrorist to the core, the mastermind of the massacre of October 7”, Yahya Sinwar. Who now, according to analysts, after the death of Haniyeh has “free hands” to decide on his own how to continue fighting against Israel, manage the talks – suspended at the moment – for the truce and the release of the hostages. Hidden inside the tunnels of Gaza for ten months, Sinwar showed the world all his power this evening. Sweeping away with an official note the political leader in pectore, evidently acclaimed only by Doha and Tehran, Muhammad Ismail Darwish, head of the Shura Council and true “boss of the economic and financial empire of Hamas”. The shadowy figure who for years has directed the transfers of money from Iran to the Islamic militia and investments throughout the world, was liquidated in the space of a few hours. The communication between him and Darwish – Israeli analysts stressed this morning – “is not so fluid and current”. Certainly the nomination of the treasurer of Hamas as political head, widely announced by the Arab media during the day and taken as a given, did not please under the tunnels of the Strip. And Sinwar has now taken over Hamas entirely.
The prediction came a few days ago from Middle East expert Michael Milshtein: “With Haniyeh’s death, Sinwar is the man who really commands in the Strip. He despised Haniyeh because he was one of those in suits and ties, without military experience, who did not suffer in prison like him and do not understand that the vision is jihad, not political projects”, he commented. For the analyst, at Haniyeh’s death, Sinwar “did not toast, but his killing certainly created a more comfortable operating space”.
In fact, there is no one left on the road to Sinwar now.
No political leader from Doha, who travels between Arab capitals and weaves political plots that can disturb Gaza’s sleep.
Sinwar is left alone. Even personally, since the men closest to him have been eliminated by Israel. First of all his lifelong friend, the very trusted Muhammad Deif, killed in a building in the south of the Strip on July 13. He too is a terrorist at heart, and an architect of evil in planning the assault on Israel on October 7. Now everything is in Sinwar’s hands, stained with blood.
Betty Lahat, former director of the prison where he was held in Israel, describes him as a man as fickle as a cat, but also as fragile and cowardly as when he was told he had head cancer, which was then successfully treated by Israeli doctors. And the Israeli analyst Ehud Yaari, who interviewed him during his imprisonment, calls him “a cunning and sophisticated psychopath”. While Michael Koubi, a Shin Beth officer who interrogated him for hours during his imprisonment, remembers him as a being “hard and devoid of emotions, with the eyes of a murderer”.
Sinwar was released in the exchange of a thousand Palestinian prisoners for the soldier Gilad Shalit held for 5 and a half years in the tunnels, with a decision taken by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. For the IDF “there is only one place for Sinwar. And it is next to Deif”.
A week after the assassination of Ismael Haniyeh in Tehran, the international community is holding its breath awaiting Iranian retaliation against Israel. The Ayatollah regime has already communicated to foreign ambassadors its intention to strike the Jewish state and has begun preparatory maneuvers, moving missile launchers, but at the same time it seems to have taken more time, as suggested by the convocation of a meeting with Arab countries for tomorrow. For Hassan Nasrallah, this is a precise strategy: “Waiting is part of the punishment,” warned the Hezbollah leader, promising an attack by the entire Shiite axis, including the Houthis. A proclamation preceded by the low-altitude overflight of Israeli fighters over Beirut, as an act of defiance. After yet another day of exchanges of fire between the IDF and the Lebanese militias, who also deployed Shahed drones.
In Iran, in addition to the proclamations of political leaders, the military has also been active in preparing revenge for the death of the Hamas leader. The Americans have seen rocket launching sites moved and recorded exercises since the weekend.
In addition, Iranian Air Force Chief Ali Reza Sabahifard announced the opening of “a cutting-edge electronic warfare center in the east of the country.
The arsenal of the Shiite power was then enriched by the arrival from Russia of advanced air defense equipment and radar, ammunition and Iskander ballistic missiles, which caused damage to Ukrainian infrastructure.
Diplomatic signals suggest that the attack will not happen in the next few hours. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, based in Jeddah, has in fact announced that it will meet on Wednesday at the request of “Palestine and Iran”, to discuss developments in the region. The main ally of the ayatollahs, Nasrallah, has however kept the alarm high for Israel. “Hezbollah will respond, Iran will respond, Yemen will respond and the enemy waits, watches and evaluates every reaction.
“The main thing is that there is determination and ability,” the leader of the Party of God stressed during a eulogy for the killing of his right-hand man, Commander Fuad Shukr. And in the spirit of a “battle that is also psychological” with the eternal enemy, he added: “Our response will come alone or as part of a collective response by the entire front,” the so-called axis of resistance of the Shiite militias. Like the Iraqi ones, for example, who on Monday night hit the American base of Al-Asad with two missiles, causing several injuries among US personnel. All this while Hamas has decided to replace Haniyeh at the head of the political office with the most hawkish of hawks: Yahya Sinwar, the head of the faction in Gaza and the mastermind of October 7, Israel’s number one wanted man.
In Washington, the possibility of a coordinated attack is being taken seriously. According to Axios, intelligence has provided Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with a scenario with two waves, one from Hezbollah and one from Iran and several of its other affiliated groups in the region. Although, it has been reported, Israel’s adversaries have not yet decided exactly how to proceed.
In the Jewish state, the alert remains high. In the Golan, local authorities have asked residents to stay close to shelters and minimize travel. After Hezbollah launched a swarm of drones and a barrage of rockets toward the disputed heights and the Galilee, sounding the alarm sirens several times.
With the Iranian attack now looking like a question of when, not if, the main chancelleries are moving together with regional partners to avoid the worst. Biden has assured that the US is “ready to defend Israel”, but his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has clarified that “we are committed 24 hours a day to ask all parties to refrain from escalation”. Rome is also very active. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has spoken with King Abdullah of Jordan, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has spoken with his colleague from Amman and with his Egyptian counterpart. Vladimir Putin has also moved to avoid the outbreak of an open war. The Russian president, while continuing to arm the Iranians, has sent a message to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei launching an appeal to spare Israeli civilians