Tensions in the Middle East continue to heat up, with yet another barrage of rockets striking Israel from Lebanon.
Early Monday, Hezbollah launched 30 rockets into Northern Israel, adding to the more than 7,000 the group has fired from Lebanon since October 7, 2023. No casualties were reported.
Israel is on high alert, expecting an imminent attack from Iran, who vowed to attack on the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av (the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av), which begins tonight at sunset and lasts until sundown Tuesday night. Tisha B’Av, a day of national mourning for tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, is observed by fasting and repentance.
The holiday dates back to the return of the spies from scouting the land of Canaan in chapter 14 of the Book of Numbers. As a result of their besmirching the Promised Land, they caused God to decree that the generation would wander in the desert for 40 years rather than enter the land, thus setting the tragic tone for the day throughout history. The destruction of the First and Second Temples, which once stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, also took place on Tisha B’Av nearly 500 years apart, as have many tragedies in the history of the Jewish people.
American officials have strongly warned Iran that the consequences of attacking Israel would be “significant.”
Israel has been less subtle with its messages to the U.S. designated “State Sponsor of Terrorism.”
Following a Houti-drone attack in Tel Aviv in July in which one person was killed and 10 were wounded, Israel retaliated against Houti targets in Yemen, including a Houthi-controlled port containing fuel storage facilities, causing an estimated $20 billion in damage. The move was seen as a warning to Iran that Israel could likewise hit its oil and natural gas storage facilities, causing a far more significant impact on the terror regime’s economy.
NBC News reports on U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to dispatch an aircraft carrier strike group and a guided missile submarine to the region in preparation for Iran’s anticipated attack. Here’s the start of the story:
The U.S. is sending a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and speeding the arrival of an aircraft carrier strike group, as Israel braces for retaliatory attacks from Iran and its proxies after the assassination of senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Pentagon confirmed late Sunday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the dispatch of the USS Georgia guided missile submarine to the region. He further ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which is equipped with F-35C fighter jets, to accelerate its ongoing transit to the area.
The orders, and the rare step to publicly announce the deployment of a submarine, came as Austin reaffirmed Washington’s “commitment to take every possible step to defend” its ally in a call with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, according to a readout from the Pentagon.
Gallant “detailed IDF readiness and capabilities in the face of threats posed by Iran and its regional proxies, and discussed interoperability with the wide range of U.S. military capabilities deployed to the region,” his office said.