Iran Aiming to Expand War with Israel Via Terrorism, Arms Smuggling

December 3, 2024

by: Joshua Spurlock ~ Mideast Update

Monday, 2 December 2024 | It’s not over yet. That’s the message from Israel about the threat posed by Iran and terrorists despite the ceasefire with Hezbollah. Even the arrest of three suspects behind the murder of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan hasn’t ended the threat posed by that as-yet unnamed terror group—which plans to strike again.

The Israeli National Security Council (NSC) published a new warning for southeast Asia on Saturday, stating that “current intelligence indicates that the terrorists responsible for the murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan in Dubai on November 21 have been planning further terrorist activity.”

The latest NSC notice, posted to the Israeli government website, said the threat follows prior warnings about potential terrorism against Israelis in Thailand and continues to emphasize the threat in that Asian nation. The notice warns Israelis traveling in that region to avoid places identified with Jews, maintain extra vigilance in public, and avoid publishing travel details to social media, among other considerations.

The NSC said that “Israeli security forces continue to work with all relevant partners to remove the threat.”

The warning about terrorism in Asia didn’t identify Iran as the originators behind the threat, but it comes as Israel Hayom published last week a report that Iranian intelligence services have spent more than a decade gathering information for potential attempted assassinations and murders of Israelis. Thousands of Israelis have been profiled and hundreds of Israelis have been identified as “high risk” persons, with Iran developing terror cells in multiple countries and using cyberwarfare to hack information from targets’ phones to track them and plan attacks.

The report followed allegations published by Ynetnews that Iran, or a Palestinian terror group, may have been the mastermind behind the Uzbekistani terror cell that murdered Kogan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE has since arrested three suspects, but the latest NSC warning indicates that whomever was behind the plot is continuing to target Israelis abroad.

Mark Dubowitz, CEO for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued on X (formerly Twitter) on the need for confirming whether Iran was behind the murder of Kogan and consequences if proven. Commenting on a report that a high-ranking UAE official was offering personal condolences over Kogan’s murder, Dubowitz said, “This is welcome, but it’s no substitute for a joint Emirati–American–Israeli probe into the Khamenei regime’s role in the murder. If the hitmen acted on behalf of the regime or its proxies, the Iranian ambassador to the UAE must be expelled and the consequences must be severe.”

Meanwhile, Iranian assassinations isn’t Tehran’s only plot as their war effort struggles against Israel. The Israel Defense Forces [IDF] posted on X on Friday that a noteworthy collection of weapons—including rockets, mortar launchers, sniper rifles and remote-triggered military-grade explosives—were intercepted on their way to terrorists in Judea and Samaria. Iran was behind it.

“The smuggling was orchestrated by Iran’s Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps 4000th Division, led by Jawad Ghafari and the Quds Force’s Unit 840 in Syria, commanded by Etsar Bakri,” said the IDF post, which included a video of the weapons seized. The IDF said the arms had been “buried in multiple locations.”

Said the post, “The IDF will continue to monitor and thwart any Iranian activity aimed at smuggling weapons into Israel.”

That level of eternal vigilance will continue to be necessary for the IDF and individual Israelis, so long as Iran continues to pursue warfare against the Jewish state and its people.

Posted on December 3, 2024

Source: (This article was originally published by the Mideast Update on December 1, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today.)

Photo Credit: Hossein Zohrevand/Tasnim News Agency/Wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia