Three individuals who were in the heavily guarded building in Tehran where Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated have told Middle East Eye that the Hamas political chief was killed by a projectile fired at his room and not a planted bomb.
The individuals, one of whom was staying in a room near Haniyeh’s, said on Friday that they heard sounds before an explosion shook the building, sounds they said appeared to be consistent with those made by a missile.
“This was definitely a projectile and not a planted bomb,” one of the individuals told MEE, adding that they saw the aftermath of the explosion which appeared to be consistent with an attack by a missile.
Totally agree. Iran can see incoming aircraft and missiles on their radar. There would have been widespread social media reports of the missile flying over the city. These things did not happen. Where’s the missile debris? That would have been the lead story on local TV news. Iranian leadership would love to tie the attack back to a missile provided by the US. That would have been their first claim if it really was due to a missile. This story sounds more like Iran belatedly trying to change the narrative.
F35s are stealth bombers and smaller drones would be harder to detect.
Of course this article is just testimonies and nothing concrete, but it is worth mentioning that the bomb plant theory is not a universal truth yet.
And this F35/drone came from where? And shot with what?
The F35 has an estimated range of 2800km without any weaponry and a realistic combat range of around 1400km.
That would mean Israel would need to use mid air refuelling or external fuel tanks (which they absolutely have for the F35) - the F35 were involved in Yemen,but the distance to Yemen is much smaller from Nevatim.
Now, there is of course the option to mid air refuelling as they did for Yemen. But: Tankers are regular airline aircraft and as such they are visible on every military and civil radar since the 40ies. And there is a lot of unfriendly airspace between the Iranian airspace and Israel - namely Syria and Iraq - but also long range radars from Iran, Türkiye, etc.would be able to pick that up. Additionally: Teheran is a long way from the only spot where Israel could do such a refuelling operation - the Persian gulf (and/or Iraq’s airspace,but that doesn’t change a thing). Even IF they somehow managed to sneak a tanker through AND pulled of an refuelling operation without anyone noticing they would need to fly the F35 to Teheran and back from international or “bribed friendly” airspace.
Which is also out of the range of a stealth F35. Sure,you can use external fuel tanks and a buddy to buddy refuelling system - but that would mean that the tanker-F35 would be non-stealth and the refuelling process IN Iranian airspace would be even less stealth.
AND the Israelis would need to follow this up with another tanker refuelling operation,now with Iranian radars in full defence mode after the strike. AND we haven’t even talked about the projectile which would need to be stealth as well AND both precise and small enough to take out only a single room and that room only. Currently there is none that we are aware of.
Tbh: Sure, in theory it could be done. But it would still rely on gross Iranian air defence incompetence, multiple not very Israel friendly neighbouring countries keeping their mouth shut AND a projectile that would have been previously unknown.
So there is a close to zero possibility that this really happened - even for Israel’s often daring missions this is beyond their means. (Besides the US would very likely stop further deliveries if Israel would risk multiple F35 over Iran for such a mission)
But of course there is a second option: The United states! Well. Of course. They absolutely have carriers in the region and in theory try such a mission - their only advantage here would be,that they don’t need the tanker air refueling part, though - the buddy refuelling would still be needed, though and is still a problem, same goes for the projectile. And the US has zero political inclination to do so because if they got caught they are in deep shit worldwide, they are already in deep shit as they likely need to defend Israel from the retaliation anyway, they also do not risk a F35 lightly AND the democrats would surely loose the election as well if this goes wrong. So basically they are extremely unlikely as well.
Now of course there are drones left. You mentioned small drones - they indeed are an option for surgical strikes like that and are used in Ukraine like that. But: These drones have a very small range as well - OR they are big and easy to see on radar. Even a household drone can be seen easily on a 70ies military radar… So they would need to have a team within close proximity as well…
So again… it’s highly unlikely.
So how did israel bomb the port of Yemen last week? Someone refueled their airplane.
America has bases in Iraq, Jordan and Saudi and practically all the rest. Remember the Iraqis telling America to get out recently and America saying “nah”.
You heavily underestimate how complicit the US is in the israeli Genocide in Gaza. Aside from an israeli pushing the fire button everything else is American.The Biden administration is still claiming israel did not commit a single war crime just as a reminder.
Of course it’s not confirmed it was a missile yet but I certainly wouldn’t rule it out yet. But the bomb theory originates from NYT only which is hit or miss when it comes to the Genocide. Especially with the picture of the building in the article which indicates a wall blown up by a missile
As mentioned the Israelis used their tankers for Yemen- this has been confirmed in various media reports by now. Which is far easier considering they could easily use the red sea for these.
…when they bombed Natanz earlier in 2024 they needed to bomb two radar installations on their way there to deliver a loitering ammunition with a far greater range to closer target.
… Sure,the US could have allowed Israeli jets to use Al Udeid(which is the only base that allows F35 in the region and range that is currently under direct US control)for refuelling. But this base is basically under 34/7 surveillance by every half worthy intelligence agency and a lot of plane spotters. Al-Asad is used in conjunction with the Iraqis (which would surely not keep their mouth shut if the Israelis showed up there, especially after the earlier attack on their radar).Also range wise it is to far away.
… I have explained why a drone attack even from a US installation is next to impossible in my other post. As well as the small likelyhood of the US administration to risk a direct involvement here (which does not make their stance on Gaza any better).
And for the rest here: Look at OPs post history. It’s basically only one sided posts on the Gaza/IIR/Hezbollah conflict and sprinkled with fake news. OP is a IIR shill