Israel and Iran must not let these violent skirmishes turn into war

Editorial: Israel and Iran have entered an era of tit-for-tat hostility, in which the two sides’ blows are intended to be as meaningful as they are explosive. The much-anticipated assault on Rafah would fracture this new state of relatively low-key conflict – for the sake of the region, it must be ruled out now

A man walks past a banner depicting missiles on a street in Tehran (AFP via Getty)

Is this not how wars start? Conventionally, one sovereign state deliberately bombing the embassy of another sovereign state in a third country would be a reason to go to war, and a lawful one.

This is indeed what happened on 1 April, when Israel destroyed a building within the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria. Iran, however, did not declare war in true 19th-century style. It instead launched a huge one-night bombardment of assorted missiles at Israel, almost all of which were dealt with before they could land through intervention by Israel and other, friendly, air forces, with the fabled Iron Dome anti-missile defence system working impeccably.

Again, even though the Iranian assault turned out to be more a show of Israeli than Iranian strength, that attempted bombardment would at least notionally serve as a perfectly adequate casus belli for Israel. Yet it provoked Israel “only” to retaliate via a precisely targeted aerial assault on a Revolutionary Guard airbase and munitions store – more than likely from whence the Iranians had dispatched their own drones towards Israel days before.