By Al-Fassel | 2024-04-11

Recent attacks on the Israeli port of Eilat carried out by Iran-aligned militias appear to be motivated by revenge and have nothing to do with the militias' or Iran's loudly proclaimed solidarity with Gaza.

The volley of attacks targeting various locations inside Israel came after the Iranian regime accused Israel of carrying out an April 1 air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, and vowed revenge.

The consulate was hosting a meeting of officers belonging to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (IRGC-QF) at the time of the strike.

Days later, Israel deployed its C-Dome ship-mounted defense system for the first time on April 7 against a "suspicious" target that entered its airspace near Eilat, AFP reported.

The C-Dome is a naval version of the Iron Dome air defense system used to shield against rocket and missile attacks.

On the evening of April 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported an alert in the area of Eilat, which also was targeted in February by intercepted ballistic missile fire from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

"Following the sirens that sounded in the area of Eilat regarding the infiltration of a hostile aircraft, IDF Naval forces identified a suspicious aerial target crossing into Israeli territory," the IDF said in a statement.

"The target was successfully intercepted by the 'C-Dome' naval defense system," it said, with no injuries or damage reported.

An IDF spokesperson would not confirm whether the "suspicious" target had been a drone but told AFP this was "the first operational use of C-Dome."

In an April 9 statement on the Houthi-controlled website Ansarollah.com, the so-called Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed it had recently targeted sites in Israel, including the port of Ashkelon and Beersheva.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq is a relatively new name given to a coalition of Iran-backed militias across the region.

"The proxies definitely do not operate on their own," political analyst Tariq al-Shammari told Al-Fassel in February.

"At the end of the day, it is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force that directs them and issues them orders, and they implement them," he said.

Repeated attacks on Eilat

Eilat has come under repeated missile and drone attack from the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen in recent months.

In March, a missile launched from Yemen landed near Eilat.

In November, a group in Syria linked to Lebanese Hizbullah, another Iranian proxy, launched a drone that hit Eilat, Asharq al-Awsat reported.

On April 1, Eilat came under an aerial attack that struck a building in the city but caused no casualties, with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claiming responsibility.

The April 1 strike in Damascus killed Iran's top IRGC-QF commander in Lebanon and Syria, Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, his deputy commander and his chief of general staff, and four other IRGC elements, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Zahedi was point man in Iran's war on Israel, and was responsible for Iran's weapons transfers to Hizbullah, the newspaper said. He was believed to be in daily contact with its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.