Iran planning to attack Israel on Tisha B’An

On Tisha B’Av, the sacred day for Jews, Iran plans to launch an attack against Israel, according to information gathered by Western intelligence agencies and reported by Israeli media.

The information suggests that Iran’s attack, which is purportedly in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil, is scheduled to begin on the Jewish holy day, which starts on August 12 and ends on August 13.

According to Sky News Arabia, Western intelligence agencies have evidence of Iran’s plans. The attack is expected to be carried out in collaboration with Hezbollah from Lebanese territory.

During Haniyeh’s funeral in Doha, Qatar, threats against Israel intensified, with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah explicitly threatening to destroy Israel. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei also vowed retaliation and revenge in a similar vein.

Israeli military chief Herzl Halevi stated yesterday that “anyone who attacks or threatens Israeli citizens, or attacks Israel, we are prepared, no matter how far away, to find and eliminate them.”

Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an “airstrike,” according to Hamas and Iranian media, on Wednesday in a war veterans’ building in northern Tehran, just hours after attending the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

Iran, Hamas, and the Lebanese Hezbollah have accused Israel of being responsible for Haniyeh’s assassination.

In response to Haniyeh’s assassination, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has declared that retaliation is “inevitable,” stating that “Israel does not know which red lines it has crossed” during the funeral of Fuad Soukr.

That evening, the movement announced it had launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at northern Israel.

Hezbollah, supported by Iran—an ally of Hamas—has been exchanging fire daily with the Israeli military along the Lebanon-Israel border since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza, which was sparked by the unprecedented Palestinian movement’s incursion into southern Israel on October 7.