As everyone knows, now in the Red Sea, the Houthis in Yemen are worthy of the name, and the "ship raid war" has been fought vigorously, which has had a serious impact on Israel's shipping and foreign trade. Even southern Israel's ports have been forced to suspend operations due to successive missile attacks. Under heavy pressure, Israel began to take revenge, and while the ground forces launched a full-scale attack on Iran's forces, the Israeli army entered the Red Sea, targeting Iran's oil tankers. According to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander-in-Chief Hussein · Salami, the Israeli army has directly attacked and destroyed 14 Iran oil tankers. With the relevant evidence in hand, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also began an all-out revenge, launching strikes against Israel and related ships in the Red Sea. It is reported that 12 Israel-related cargo ships have been damaged by Iran.
The reason why Israel directly sought revenge from Iran this time is because the Houthis themselves are members of the "Arc of Resistance" led by Iran, and a large number of weapons and missiles used for "ship raids" come from Iran's assistance. Having suffered losses at sea, it stands to reason that Israel should first find trouble with the Houthis. However, the Houthis, as a "slipper army", are poor and white, and there is no foreign trade, which makes Israel's revenge fire nowhere to vent, and can only turn its attention to Iran, the real financier behind the Houthis. In the eyes of Israel, every attack by the Houthis is secretly controlled by Iran. Coupled with the fact that oil trade is Iran's pillar industry, and there are oil tankers all over Iran in the India Ocean and the Red Sea, Israel does not have a strong navy, but it can completely rely on missiles to hit these passing oil tankers.
It is worth mentioning that with the successive attacks on Iran oil tankers in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea, Israel did not initially carry out large-scale propaganda coverage until Iran launched a comprehensive investigation and found traces of Israel's weapons and ammunition from the wreckage of the blown oil tanker. The reason is simple, Israel is in the guise of "boiling frogs in warm water", and is ready to use a large number of Iran tankers without Iran's thorough attention through continuous and uninterrupted strikes, thereby weakening Iran's maritime transportation capacity and reducing Iran's fiscal revenue. After all, oil exports are the lifeblood of Iran's economy, and Israel appears to be conducting military operations at sea, but it is actually fighting an economic war.
However, Israel clearly underestimated Iran. Just after confirming Israel's maritime attack, Iran began a full-scale strike against Israel cargo ships in the India Ocean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Like the Houthis, Iran is within the scope of the attack as long as it determines that the cargo ship in question is linked to Israel, even if it is not owned by Israel. With the Houthis and the United States and Britain in the past, Israel and Iran in the future, the entire waters around the Middle East have become more involved, and passing ships have become much more dangerous. The outbreak of this maritime struggle also marks a major shift in the way Israel and Iran are in conflict. On the premise that both sides exercise restraint, this low-intensity confrontation will continue.
It is worth mentioning that in the Middle East, Iran has the most powerful naval power, and its combat sequence includes destroyers, frigates, submarines and patrol boats, with about 400 ships, including 7 frigates, 3 corvettes and 34 submarines. Although it has been sanctioned by Western countries for many years, the Iran Navy has paid great attention to developing asymmetric warfare capabilities in recent years, and its small submarines and fast attack boats are numerous. Although the US military has deployed multiple aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, the Iran Navy can still use its geographical advantages and sea communication arteries, such as the Strait of Hormuz, to conduct naval raids and disturbance warfare in various seas in the Middle East, and Israel's future maritime and maritime trade will be seriously threatened.
However, even as the maritime struggle between Israel and Iran continues to escalate, the likelihood of a head-on war between the two sides remains low. In particular, the likelihood of a large-scale ground war occurring at the moment is very low. After all, Iran has its own plateau and mountain terrain advantages, even if Israel has strong military strength and United States support, it does not dare to take the initiative to start large-scale mountain warfare. Therefore, this kind of continuous and uninterrupted low-intensity confrontation will also be the main mode of the Iranian-Israeli conflict for some time to come.