No sooner had Israeli society begun to process the news, than the warnings began of a potential retaliation from its arch-foe Iran.
Washington warned that Tehran was preparing to “imminently” launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel. A White House official warned of “severe consequences” if it did.
Iran launched a barrage of rockets and drones in April, but in a manner judged to have made it easy for Israel and its allies to shoot most of them down, thus stopping short of a full-on war.
Potentially, this was different. Was the regional conflagration that has been warned of for so much of the last year about to ignite?
Citing “great challenges” ahead, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, spoke directly to the nation, asking his people “to strictly obey the directives of the Home Front Command. It saves lives”. Secondly, he asked them “to stand together”.
In the north, the IDF carried on much as before, adding a “precise strike” in Beirut to its barrage in the hills.