The Israeli army has paused leave for all combat units as the country prepares for a possible Iranian attack following the assassination of its senior commander in Syria on Monday.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Israel was at war and “the deployment of forces is under continuous assessment according to requirements”.
It has also called up additional reservists and bolstered the air defence systems on Israel’s northern borders.
The orders came as the country reported widespread GPS disruptions on applications such as Google Maps and Waze in the centre of the country on Thursday. Some users were shown to be in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.
Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reported it was a deliberate attempt to thwart drone threats, something that has been done since Oct 7 in the north of the country where drone attacks are bigger threats. The IDF is yet to comment on the issue.
Iran promised to “punish” Israel after it allegedly launched an airstrike that killed seven Iranian officials at its consulate in Damascus.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said: “The defeat of the Zionist regime in Gaza will continue and this regime will be close to decline and dissolution.”
Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander responsible for Iranian activities in Lebanon and Syria, was among those killed, marking it the most valuable target allegedly hit by Israel since Oct 7.
Israel hasn’t taken responsibility for the attack but New York Times quoted four Israeli officials saying the country was indeed behind the assassination.
Yoav Gallant, the defence minister, spoke cryptically about the rising tensions in the north following Iran’s threat, saying Israel is currently in a “multi-front war – we see evidence of this every day, including over the last few days”.
“We operate everywhere, every day, in order to prevent our enemies from gaining strength and in order to make it clear to anyone who threatens us – all over the Middle East – that the price for such action will be a big one,” he added.
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