ISRAEL SENDS OUT A WARNING SIGNAL TO IRAN

"The attack was designed to be big enough to send a message, but small enough not to warrant an escalation,' said sources from Israel

- JOYEETA BASU

Israel carried out precise, and controlled, Lairstrikes on Iran's military installations on the intervening night of 25-26 October, during Sabbath, the day of rest for the Jewish people. The message was clear-that it was capable of carrying out such strikes even 2,000 kilometres away, with over 100 aircraft, and return home safely, without a single jet lost. Equally importantly, the attacks were carried out 500-600 km deep inside Iranian territory, without any resistance faced by the multitude of Israeli fighter planes criss-crossing Iran's skies. It was more than apparent to the world that Iran with its rickety air force of 1970s vintage and crumbling radar and air defence systems-which the Israelis took out in the first wave of the attack-just didn't have the wherewithal to intercept any Israeli attack; that it was a sitting duck if Israel ever decided to escalate the conflict. Such was the pathetic state of affairs, that visuals on social media site X claimed to show Iran's military using even anti-aircraft guns to target the Israeli fighter jets. The S-300 missile defence system, which Iran had taken delivery of from Russia in 2016, was not capable of intercepting the attack and sources say that the Israeli jets were able to down a few. The Iranians claimed that their missile defence system was able to repel the Israeli attack, which is an absurd claim, since the S-300s miserably failed to stop the Israelis flying all over Iran's skies.