Were Israel's Yemen strikes trial run for major attack on Iran?
Some analysts consider the large-scale attack on Yemeni sites a test run for a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, but others now view destabilizing the mullahs as the best approach.
TEL AVIV — The recent large-scale Israeli operation against targets in Yemen took weeks to plan, but does not point to Israeli leaders having sidelined what they consider the biggest threat to Israel — Iran.
On Dec. 19 at 2:30 a.m., dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets, loaded with fuel and one-ton bombs, took off toward Yemen, more than 1,120 miles away.
Their flight path took them along the Red Sea coastline, past the ballistic missile the Houthi rebels had fired from Yemen toward Israel at the very same time. As the warplanes dropped their bombs, the warhead of the Houthis' Iranian-supplied missile landed on an empty school building in suburban Tel Aviv, destroying it.
"This is the first time that Israeli citizens have seen what happens when a heavy ballistic missile hits a civilian target," a source in Israel's Home Front Command told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.
