On 5 March, a post appeared on the X account of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, managed by his staff after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 28 February. The tweet featured a stark piece of propaganda: a gleaming, oversized missile arcing across the sky as a city below is engulfed in flames. The caption read: “Khorramshahr moments are on the horizon.”

The Khorramshahr missile, Iran’s most advanced ballistic missile, is believed to be capable of carrying a cluster warhead dispersing up to 80 submunitions. Since that post, it has come to loom large in Israeli threat assessments, a persistent concern for a country equipped with a multi-layered missile defence system that is widely regarded as the world’s most sophisticated.

The latest attack using cluster munitions occurred on Sunday, when an Iranian ballistic missile struck central Israel, injuring 15 people.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, roughly half of the missiles launched from Iran since the escalation have carried cluster warheads.

The Guardian, which reviewed the impact of dozens of Iranian strikes alongside statements from Israeli officials, has identified at least 19 ballistic missiles carrying cluster warheads that penetrated Israeli airspace and struck urban areas since the beginning of the war with Iran on 28 February. Those attacks have killed at least nine people and wounded dozens, reflecting a broader shift in Iran’s tactics that appears to have exposed a vulnerability in Israel’s air defences. Since the start of the war, Iran’s cluster munitions – which disperse dozens of bomblets mid-air – have tested Israel’s highly advanced, multi-tier missile defence network, including Iron Dome, which is designed to counter threats across ranges, altitudes and speeds, exposing gaps that interception alone has struggled to close.

    • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      Well Iran has been attacking them for decades through Hezbollah and Hamas. It’s not like they’ve been keeping to themselves playing Rummikub in this conflict

      • kreskin@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        What a load of one sided crap. Israel has been the aggressor in the region since the nakba. This nonsense started when the ottoman empire retreated in the early 1900s, and its always been the zionists pursuing terrorism, murder and land theft since day 1-- uninterrupted. Endless fountains of blood on their hands for their greed.

          • kreskin@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            It is correct. Your own link for the incident you cite was after Balfour in british controlled palestine. The cause is unknown as your link states. or are ypou trying to blame zionism and the rejection of human rights of the palestinians on the british?

            • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              You claim that israel/zionists were the only ones that incited violence. My link is part of the more nuanced history of jews inside the dissolving Ottoman empire first escaping discrimination, then looking to create their own state, then being joined by refugee migrants from Europe, and then local muslim fundamentalists turning violent against them because they wanted to make sure islam remained the privileged religion on all of the land

              That’s a lot more nuanced than what you posted above, sadly in line with many other lemmings who choose to simplify all of that history into “the jews jumped from their boats guns blazing”

              • kreskin@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                “then looking to create their own state”

                By stealing land beyond what Balfour had outlined. Yes. Can you tell us what the nakba even was?

                Also, Balfour ‘specifically promised to protect the “civil and religious rights” of the “existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.’ Which was immediately violated. and its been 8- years of solid violation since then.

                • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
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                  15 hours ago

                  The Balfour declaration was a statement from the British government, not some legal document sent down from god. The UN partition plan comes a lot closer, and also tried to outline a ‘clean’ 2-state solution (well, 3-state actually). But the muslims publicly (and the jews secretly) denounced it. It’s pretty ridiculous to go waving those documents in the face of just one of those parties.

                  And I’m not disputing that they tried to get as much territory as possible and tried to expulse those with the wrong religion. Or that they were less than friendly in doing so. But then again: so did the other side.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        3 days ago

        Iran has been arming resistance to Israeli colonialism for decades, but that does not in any way make Israel a victim. Palestinians and Lebanese have the right to defend themselves, and Iran has the right (and, like the rest of the world, moral duty) to help them defend themselves.

        • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          Can you explain how the Lebanese are defending themselves when they’re firing rockets over the border into Israel?

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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            3 days ago

            Do… do you know why Hezbollah was even founded? For a hint, here’s a literal former Israeli PM on the topic:

            In 2006, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak stated, “When we entered Lebanon … there was no Hezbollah. We were accepted with perfumed rice and flowers by the Shia in the south. It was our presence there that created Hezbollah.”

            • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              Yeah, two reasons actually:

              1: beat back the Israeli’s (who invaded because the PLO was attacking them from Lebanon)

              2: to tilt the Lebanese civil war in favour of the Shia sect

              But neither seems like a valid reason to keep attacking Israel today

              • GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca
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                2 days ago

                Israel has been bombing and occupying part of Lebanon since the “ceasefire”, so your argument is ridiculous on the face of it. Hezbollah is also acting in accordance with internetional law with respect to the prevention of genocide. Finally, it does not count as “aggression” if you enter a defensive war against an aggressor - Britain and France were not aggressors in WW2 just because they declared war on Germany, since Germany had already started the war.

                • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
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                  2 days ago

                  Copying my other reply:

                  Part of the ceasefire deal was Hezbollah disarming and staying north of the Litani river. Instead, they rearmed and rebuilt. Why would you only focus on the Israeli side of the ceasefire?

                  • GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca
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                    2 days ago

                    No deal with Israel can be relied upon. They only understand force. I wish them a great many “difficult security situations”.

              • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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                2 days ago

                Your attempt to whitewash the Israeli invasion of Lebanon (brutal enough that even Reagan told them to dial it down) was not missed.

                But neither seems like a valid reason to keep attacking Israel today

                Are Israel’s near-daily ceasefire violations and its occupation of Lebanese territory reason enough?

                • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
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                  2 days ago

                  Part of the ceasefire deal was Hezbollah disarming and staying north of the Litani river. Instead, they rearmed and rebuilt. Why would you only focus on the Israeli side of the ceasefire?

                  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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                    2 days ago

                    Because only Israeli violations fucking kill people wth is this question? Also I like how you ignored the bit about occupying Lebanese territory.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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            3 days ago

            TF do you mean “apologist?” Hamas being a (and, in fact, by far the biggest) Palestinian armed resistance organization and the fact they do a lot of evil shit are two facts that can be true at the same time. That doesn’t mean supporting Hamas is victimizing Israel.

            • CannonFodder@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              It kinda does tho. Hamas, in one form or another, has been attacking Isreal for many decades. Isreal has been attacking Gaza and Lebanon and other Arab countries for decades too. They’re all victims of each other and a product of an unfortunate history. There have even been some serious attempts at peaceful resolution, which always get fucked up by one side or the other, or usually both. Yes I 100% agree that isreal’s actions are unacceptable and horrific. But they are also victims. Just like the people of Gaza could have voted for a government that strived for a peaceful solution, but chose a violent one - but they are still victims of the result.

              • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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                3 days ago

                Hamas, in one form or another, has been attacking Isreal for many decades.

                One doesn’t become a victim due to being attacked; it takes being unjustly attacked to make one a victim. This makes certain individual Israeli civilians victims, but not Israel as a whole.

                Just like the people of Gaza could have voted for a government that strived for a peaceful solution, but chose a violent one

                With all due respect, this is the most historically illiterate thing I’ve read today. The only reason Hamas even exists is the complete and utter failure of peaceful solutions. And of course they failed; what, did you also expect the Irish or Algerians to strive for peaceful solutions? Rejecting peaceful solutions has been Israeli policy for longer than Israel existed. Hell, the current state of the West Bank should tell you all you need to know about what “striving for peaceful solutions” looks like,.

                • CannonFodder@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  No I expect the Irish to keep fighting to this day and bomb people in London next week. Never stop fighting!!! /s?
                  WTF?
                  Look back at the history, there have been plenty of peace talks scuppered by the Palestinians extremists (just as there have been by the Israeli extremists).
                  Yes, Isreal is totally fucked in the way they attack Palestinians. And visa versa. Both sides can claim tat for tit going a long way back. But unless we find a way to realize violence on BOTH SIDES is bad, it’s not going to be possible to find a solution.

                  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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                    No I expect the Irish to keep fighting to this day and bomb people in London next week. Never stop fighting!!! /s?

                    Are you fucking kidding me? The Irish got an acceptable settlement in Good Friday, so they’re not bombing London anymore. They bombed the shit out of Brits and Loyalists before Good Friday, which is what Palestinians are doing. The Irish didn’t get their freedom by fucking magic.

                    there have been plenty of peace talks scuppered by the Palestinians extremists (just as there have been by the Israeli extremists).

                    Example? If there are many, give what you consider the best example.

                    But unless we find a way to realize violence on BOTH SIDES is bad, it’s not going to be possible to find a solution.

                    Then what are Palestinians supposed to do? Pray? When peaceful resistance fails, violent resistance becomes the only solution. Violence is only bad if there’s another option available; no such thing is available to Palestinians. Again, have you seen the state of the West Bank? That’s what the peace you’re asking for looks like. Your refusal acknowledge this means your position is built on magical thinking divorced from reality.

              • finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Just like the people of Gaza could have voted for a government that strived for a peaceful solution, but chose a violent one

                Because there were so many free and fair elections in Gaza.

          • kreskin@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            you’re actually a zionist supremacist/terrorism and war crimes apologist. Even bigger Wow. Why not stand on the side of universal human rights for all, eh? Maybe if Israel did that just once they’d have some legs to stand on. But they keep raping and killing women and kids, and keep stealing land, dont they. So yeah, that gets people pretty mad, including Hamas, yeah. Funny how that works.

            Would you be so silly to claim Hamas has no reason to seek violent redress for what Israel has done to them? I’m shocked its not 1000x worse than what Hamas and Hezbollah are doing. Did you really think there would be no paybacks?

            • CannonFodder@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Because I say both sides are bad for continuing the violence over the last decade? And I specifically called out Isreal on its atrocities? Wtf? Are you really that ignorant and closed minded?

          • GuyIncognito@lemmy.ca
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            2 days ago

            Just what is it that you find so appealing about genocide, fasicsm, and pedophilia? It boggles the mind.

            • CannonFodder@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Can you not read? Just because an opinion isn’t 100% aligned with your personal brainwashing, doesn’t mean it’s diametrically opposed. What you did is called a ‘strawman argument’. Try looking that up and learn why it makes you an idiot. No offense.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        Zionazi complaints for justifying Iran destruction must be dismissed, and certainly dismissed from world consideration of siding with Israel. Palestinian and Lebanese resistance to US/Israel hegemony over decades is justifiable independent resistance, and Iran support for any of it is irrelevant. That US/Israel are innocent loving victims of Iran must be exterminated from policy relevance. Let he who never supports political groups internationally cast the first stone.

        Most relevant, the US has been negotiating a peace deal with Iran for over a year. Such a deal, if earnest would forgive the past on both sides. That Israel will always prevent peace, and controls the US means it is not earnest. In this week’s negotiations, all US zionazi political stooges are all talking as though the negotiations are for Iran’s surrender with no budget to compensate Iran. Zionazi media doesn’t even ask the questions.