Khamenei Distances Iran From Hamas Operation, Fearing Israeli Attack, As Rocket Salvo Fired From Lebanon
Update(1310ET): The Israeli army has reportedly issued an order for citizens to evacuate the Metula settlement, which lies just along the northern border with Lebanon. This after a salvo of some 15 rockets was fired from southern Lebanon in a suspected Hezbollah operation. "In response to the launches identified from Lebanese territory toward Israeli territory, IDF soldiers are currently responding with artillery fire," regional sources report. The IDF said it intercepted several of them, while most landed in open fields. Things are steadily escalating there:
A senior Israeli officer was killed in a confrontation with militants on the frontier with Lebanon on Monday, Israel's military has confirmed.
The [Israeli] military said troops and aircraft killed two "terrorist infiltrators" who had crossed into Israeli territory. Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed that they were its members.
Later, at least three militants from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement were killed as the military attacked sites in Lebanon in response to mortar fire.
Still, both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah have thus far narrowly avoided a spiral into all-out war at the Israel-Lebanon border. "What’s happening here seems to be a kind of contained tension. Lebanon is not yet a war zone. However, it’s an area of operation. But it seems it’s also a space for both sides to exchange messages," an Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Ali Hashem, has observed.
Iran, meanwhile, has been on the defensive after major US media, especially the Wall Street Journal, cited US sources who alleged Tehran supported, funded and helped plan Hamas' deadly rampage across southern Israel on Saturday. There's speculation that the Iranians fear Israel's Netanyahu government could begin targeting sites inside Iran. A regional source reports Tuesday on the unprecedented softening of rhetoric from Iran's leadership, related to Hamas and Israel as follows:
Iran’s supreme leader has strongly rejected any involvement in the Hamas movement’s surprise attack on Israel. The public maneuvering, which involved Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strikingly repeating his rejection of an Iranian role three times in a 90-second span, follows controversial claims in US media that Tehran helped plan the Oct. 7 blitz.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a high-ranking Iranian source told Amwaj.media that Khamenei’s remarks—his first since the Hamas offensive—may have been sparked by “him seeing the direction of the Israeli public diplomacy campaign.” Rejecting concerns of an impending Israeli attack as Khamenei’s underlying motive, the source said the supreme leader’s comments are “pre-emptive” as opposed to reactive.
Addressing the rare decision by Khamenei to be so vocal in his rejection of an Iranian role in the Palestinian blitz, a second senior source in Tehran told Amwaj.media, “Give me one reason why he should do otherwise.” Also speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of the matter, he continued, “Why should one give them the perfect justification they need for an attack?” At the same time, the source dismissed the notion that being so explicit in rejecting a role in the Hamas attack indicates a sense of weakness on the part of Iran.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/its-not-battlefield-its-massacre-israeli-army-takes-foreign-press-scenes-kibbutz