Iran threatens ‘80,000 rockets at Tel Aviv and Haifa’ over distorted Ya’alon comment

Iranian officials have been thrown into a fit over distorted comments attributed to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon that have swept across the internet and include popular anti-Israel sites.

 

A report by Iran’s Fars news agency on Wednesday claimed that the defense minister supposedly said “We are going to hurt Lebanese civilians to include kids of the family. We went through a very long deep discussion … we did it then, we did it in [the] Gaza Strip, we are going to do it in any round of hostilities in the future,” while speaking at an unnamed “conference in Jerusalem.”

 

The quote was most likely based on Ya’alon’s comments from the May 5 Shurat Hadin conference. He was recounting targeting decisions in which he was involved when it first became apparent that Hezbollah was purposely placing weapons in civilian homes in Lebanon. He said that “If we don’t intercept the rocket-launchers in advance, civilians will be hurt, if not killed. If we hit the launchers, it will hurt or kill Lebanese civilians.” He said a “long, deep discussion” regarding the “moral and legal considerations” took place before the final decision to strike the rocket launcher.

 

Read More: Iran threatens ‘80,000 rockets at Tel Aviv and Haifa’ over distorted Ya’alon comment – Arab-Israeli Conflict – Jerusalem Post