Israel-Hamas war: Iran to attack Israel in 24-48 hours | LiveNOW from FOX

I want to move on to some breaking news that we've been following all morning. Get a live look at the Israel-Gaza border, as a new Wall Street Journal report quotes US officials warning that Iran is expected to

attack

Israel within 24 to 48

hours

Iran calls it retaliation for an

attack

in Syria that killed several Iranian forces Ana cine is the senior director of Israel Pro, where I am at the foundation for the defense of democracies, she joins us now live to talk more about all this good morning. and thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us Hi Josh, always a pleasure, okay, you and I have discussed, of course, the Iranian attack that the United States says is essentially imminent here, just break down your thoughts . as you hear the Wall Street Journal now reporting that it could be 24 to 48

hours

for that attack to happen, thanks Josh, yes, we've been hearing this.

I am in Israel during these months just reporting about the war and us. I've been hearing this for about a week since Israel allegedly attacked an embassy annex in Syria and eliminated a senior IRGC leader there. We have been hearing that an attack is imminent and we have been hearing language like IM imminent in the next few days in the short term and now this article with 24 to 48 hours in Israel the mood is on high alert but life goes on and today the schools In Israel they separated for a two-week break for the Jewish holiday of Passover and children were instructed to bring all their materials home in the case of remote learning, which would be what would happen if there was a war.

There are other contingency messages that are sent to the communities about what the protocols would be. be in certain scenarios, so there is an intense feeling, but again, this is what we've been hearing these alerts for a week, nothing has happened yet and we're all waiting to see how this plays out, and I know you've watched. Regarding this, what are the chances of Iran's retaliation against Israel? So I would point out three, one is that Iran could go after Israeli embassies or Jewish targets abroad and the other is that Iran could respond through its network of proxies that it has surrounding Israel, Iran has an expeditionary force, it invests a lot in these operatives that operate outside Iranian territory, they are in Iraq, they are in Syria, they are in Lebanon, they are, uh, Iran also finances the Houthis in Yemen and, of course, they have Palestinians. subsidiaries in the West Bank and Gaza so that Iran can attack an embassy abroad, it could attack from one of its proxies or subsidies in the region and the third option is that it could attack from Iranian soil and I would believe that it would do so.

This is the least likely option, however, Israel is prepared for all these contingencies. I will tell you in my long years studying the region, it is never what you expect. Israel is anticipating an attack, now it is trying to imagine what it could be like. It feels like this is a matter of heightened awareness and I doubt there will be any big surprises, but Iran has many different ways of responding and we will know that all their guesses are as good as mine at this moment when Israel attacked. The course ended in Syria and we had this situation that began to develop and go a little further.

Do you think they thought that Iran would retaliate as a possibility that would have been considered at that time before the attack was launched, so to speak? um Iran has, as I said, 19 proxies on Israel's border that it can call on to retaliate through any of them, but it's very rare um and in Israel it responds the same way. I mean, this attack on the irgc general in Syria was in response to a drone that largely attacked a military base, so this tit-for-tat between the Iranian proxies and Israel has been going on for six months and in fact , it's been going on for years, but it's intensifying, now it's getting more, it's getting attacked. they are becoming more real, they are reaching real objectives, they are reaching military objectives and we are reaching a kind of crescendo, so you know how Iran responds, it will be the regime's decision, but in the past.

When Israel or the United States have attacked Iranian targets and senior commanders in the IRGC, Kasum Sulamani is an example that comes to mind. Iran is generally very careful, very thoughtful in its response, so yes, eliminating a high-ranking IRGC leader was definitely a decisive step. and a bold move by Israel and now we will see if it has a deterrent effect on Iran or if it leads the region into a broader war and that leads to my next question because you have Iran attacking Israel Israel responds and attacks Iran. to a broader range of conflicts in that region, well, that's the question that remains to be seen: Israel has faced attacks from seven fronts since October 7 and while they all have different Pro representatives and they all have different addresses, all of those attacks have Iranian attacks.

There are fingerprints on them: these terrorist organizations are trained and funded by the Islamic regime of Iran, so while this proxy war has been going on for months and years, the strategy does not seem to be working, Israel has been on the sidelines. constantly defensive in this tit fortat response and has decided to make a decisive move and target the IRGC, if the past is a precedent then we can probably guess that we are going to see a very careful Iran being very thoughtful about how it responds. to this and I think we will not see a traumatic escalation of ES because I don't think Iran wants it.

Iran's plans are working perfectly. He is being able to do it. It is a death by a thousand cuts for Israel. He is attacking from multiple powers. There is very little recoil. from the United States or its European allies and appears to be a winning strategy, so why would they want to escalate this sharply now? I doubt it. What is all this revealing about the relationship between the United States and Israel? We know it has been slightly fractured. In the last few months we've heard a lot of exchanges between Biden and Netanyahu, now that there is this threat, it seems like the United States is taking an important stance to say, look, we will support Israel against Iran.

All of this reveals the relationship between Israel and the United States, so I think it's been very interesting, um, Biden, there have definitely been tensions between the Biden administration and Jerusalem over what's happening in Gaza and I've been writing extensively about this, it has There was this flash. The question of whether or not the United States will allow Israel to finish the job there, however, from day one of this war, Biden's message has been: don't let this become a regional escalation and he told the Israel's adversaries and also said Basically, to Israel there is no broader escalation.

This is his number one priority in containing this conflict, so his response did not surprise me. It's always comforting. I think Israel is very encouraged by Biden's strong and moral position. that he would support Israel, but he also achieved his goals of not allowing this to become a broader escalation, so I think he did the right thing. I think it was the moral thing. I think it's the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do to support your allies. but it has also been his position from day one. I want to talk a little more about the New York Times report that quotes us officials and says they fear most of the hostages are already dead.

Does that change anything about war? I don't think the New York Times has revealed anything, whether it's true or not, I don't think the New York Times is going to reveal anything that Israeli intelligence doesn't know that the Israelis have been listening to for a couple of years. For months, since about January or February, a large number of hostages are dead and in recent negotiations, Hamas has just rejected its fifth round of talks to try to achieve a ceasefire in this war and a moth exchange of hostages for prisoners continues to reject him and in one of the most recent collapses of these talks he said he doesn't even know if he has enough people to exchange, he was asking for 40 of the hostages who fit into the humanitarian category and Hamas' response.

We don't know if we have that many people now, that was something that came from a Hamas official and that was also leaked to a major media outlet, but there is an aspect to these negotiations of political theater on the part of Hamas and there is also an aspect of psychological warfare, so while Israelis have been hearing for months that many hostages know for certain, according to IDF intelligence, at least 30 families have been alerted that their loved ones are dead, but they know that many more could taking these assessments with a pinch of salt because of the psychological warfare aspect, but you also have to be very realistic and that these people have been gone for over 180 days and there has been no evidence of life, there has there was access to the International.

Red Cross um and and the Israelis uh I think everyone expects the worst and the best. My last question here for you. I want to talk a little about Rafa's offense, it is something that has been discussed a lot in recent months. Do you feel like it's, quote, still imminent and do we know what it's going to be like? So I'd like to think it's imminent. I am of the opinion that Israel cannot finish the job in Gaza until it goes in and takes Rafa, takes the last four Hamas battalions that are in Rafa until it finds the Hamas leaders who are responsible for the atrocities of 7/7.

October and that they are probably hiding in Rafa. There are many good reasons for Israel to enter, but it is complicated by the fact that there are more than a million and up to 1.4 million refugees or non-refugees because they are in the country where they belong, from their origins, but they are displaced people internally in um they are taking refuge in Rafa, which will need to be moved for the IDF to come in and minimize civilian casualties. I mean, it's very logical that you want to get civilians out of the Path of Danger, so the big question that Israel is grappling with right now and that there have actually been some very tense talks between Jerusalem and Washington DC is how to get civilians out. more than a million and PE to more than a million people from the ruffa so that the IDF can come in and finish the job.

I think it's inevitable, I don't know if You know, I've heard estimates that it may take at least four weeks to get one and a half million people out of Rafath. I hope it can be done. I hope people can leave Rafath and receive as much. uh, medical and humanitarian aid is necessary. I hope that they can, can accommodate them or can return to their home towns and cities in central and northern Gaza, um, but I am of the opinion that the IDF will eventually have to finish the job in Rafa so that Hamas cannot reconstitute itself after this war because that would be a victory for Hamas.

Very good. Ana cinema. Thank you very much, as always, for taking the time to join us and discuss some of the latest developments there. outside of the Middle East anything else you want to add on this before I let you go um no you know I think we've covered that thank you so much for your great questions Josh it's always a pleasure okay thanks again for being here with we appreciate it thank you