[News] Israel censors reporting on military sites hit by Iran, obscuring extent of damage

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-censors-reporting-military-sites-hit-iran-obscuring-extent-strikes>
Israel censors reporting on military sites hit by Iran, obscuring extent of
damage
By MEE staff
Published date: 2 October 2024
------------------------------

Iran claims 90 percent of missiles hit their targets, with images showing
massive crater left in one Israeli town
[image: A person checks the rubble of a destroyed building in Hod HaSharon
in the aftermath of an Iranian missile attack on Israel, on 2 October 2024.]

A person checks rubble of a destroyed building in Hod HaSharon in aftermath
of an Iranian missile attack on Israel, on 2 October 2024 (Jack Guez/AFP)

Published date: 2 October 2024 19:07 BST | Last update: 13 hours 24 mins ago


After Iran <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iran> launched waves of
ballistic missiles across Israel
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> on Tuesday evening, with
video footage showing many of them hitting their targets, Israel closed off
several military zones and barred the publication of reporting on where
missiles hit the ground.

The censorship from Israel made it difficult to assess the full damage from
Iran's strikes, with both the US and Israel sending mixed messages
regarding the size and impact of Tehran's attack.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that an initial Israeli
assessment of the attack showed minor damage to military bases. The Iranian
attack hit the Nevatim air base in the Negev Desert, where Israel has
placed some F-35 fighter jets. But Israel's military declined to share with
the Journal the extent of the damage to the air base.

The military said "it didn’t want to give information to Iran" that could
help Tehran understand how much damage its attack caused.

Several missiles were also located near the Dead Sea, near where Israeli
nuclear facilities are located. It wasn't clear whether they were
intercepted by Israel or the US, according to the report.

One missile hit in the vicinity of a school in the town of Gedera, with
photos of the aftermath showing a massive crater in the ground and major
structural damage to the nearby buildings.

Israel said that its military and a coalition of allies including the US
and UK intercepted most of the missiles. However, video footage online
showed numerous missiles landing inside Israel and exploding without being
intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system.

[image: A crater left by an exploded projectile at a heavily-damaged school
building in Israel's southern city of Gedera on 1 October 2024.]
A crater left by an exploded projectile at a heavily-damaged school
building in Israel's southern city of Gedera, on 1 October 2024 (Menahem
Kahana/AFP)

The attacks caused two injuries inside Israel, while one Palestinian was
killed by shrapnel in the city of Jericho in the occupied West Bank.

US national security advisor Jake Sullivan said during a brief moment with
reporters on Tuesday that the Iranian attack was both a significant
escalation by Tehran and also "ineffective".

"In short, based on what we know at this point, this attack appears to have
been defeated and ineffective. The word 'fog of war' was invented for a
situation like this. This is a fluid situation," he said.

Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement
broadcast on state television that 90 percent of the missiles it launched
hit their targets successfully.

Iran said it launched the attacks in response to Israel's killing of Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh, as well as its more recent killing of Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan in southern
Beirut.

Israel's censorship of Iran's attack is not new, and the Israeli government
has ramped up its censorship during its ongoing war on Gaza, which began in
October 2023 after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

A report <https://www.972mag.com/israeli-military-censor-media-2023/> by
+972 Magazine found that in 2023, the Israeli military barred 613 articles
from being published by media outlets in Israel. That number was a record
for the magazine, which began tracking censorship in 2011.

The magazine also found that an additional 2,703 articles had been
redacted, which is the highest number of redactions since 2014, a year
Israel also launched a war on Gaza.

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