Iran launched a barrage of more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel over the weekend, saying it was in response to an airstrike earlier this month that hit Iran's consulate in Syria and killed seven Iranian military officials, including two generals.
Israel neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the Syria strike, though the Pentagon said Israel was responsible.
Sima Shine is a former senior Israeli intelligence official. She now runs the Iran desk at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. She says this attack is "crossing the Rubicon" from the point of view of Iran, and explains what Israel's retaliation could be.
For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Iranian officials have heaped praise on the attack, with a top lawmaker saying that "it humiliated the Israeli regime." But Israel says 99% of Iran's missiles and drones were intercepted.
President Biden said an attack by Iran against Israel could happen sooner rather than later. Iranian commandos seized an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.
Commandos from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled down from a helicopter onto a container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel as tensions in the region heightened.
Iran blames Israel for a strike on its Syria consulate, and has vowed to retaliate. Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution transformed previously cordial relations between Iran and Israel to fierce hostility.
An Israeli airstrike on Iran's consulate in Damascus killed two Iranian generals and five others, Iranian state media said Monday. Israel has not yet commented on the attack.
China's charting its own course, distancing itself from the U.S. in the Middle East, refusing to condemn the Houthis and looking to capitalize on ties with regional players to help solve the crisis.
After the U.S. killed a commander of an Iran-backed militia in Baghdad, pressure is mounting on Iraq's government to expel America's 2,500 military personnel.
The new round of U.S. strikes is far more extensive and deadly than those that have been launched since October, when the Israel-Hamas war began and pro-Iranian groups began their attacks.
The strikes are more extensive and deadly than those launched since last October, when the Israeli-Gaza war began and pro-Iranian groups started an uptick of attacks.
It is one of the most solemn tasks for a commander-in-chief, bearing witness as the bodies of fallen service members return to U.S. soil at Dover Air Force Base.
An escalation of violence in the Middle East over the last 24 hours, including a drone attack that killed three U.S. service members, has raised concerns about the possibility of a regional war.
